Erick gazed up at the sky over Ascendant Mountain and saw holes in that sky. The blue illusions ended, and what remained was broken black metal that formed giant rents, as though claws had carved up the sky. That was exactly what had happened, too. A while ago, Nothanganathor had sent Claws and probably even a Leviathan toward Ascendant Mountain, to attack Melemizargo’s new home for his shadelings and Shades. Those Claws had started high above the Surface Sphere of Veird,several spheres up, making a path through adamantium shells to arrive here.

If there had been a Leviathan involved, the rest of the world didn’t know about it, and the Shades Erick had spoken to so far had opted not to say anything in that direction. Melemizargo needed to appear strong, and so, Erick let that lie of omission stand.

Looking down at Ascendant Mountain, Erick could see why the Shades and maybe even Melemizargo didn’t want the world to know that they had been so thoroughly targeted.

Before the attack, Ascendant Mountain had been split in half, with the large southern part filled with white crystal towers filled with shadelings, like in Brightwater, before Last Shadow’s Feast in Ar’Kendrithyst. The north half of Ascendant Mountain had been filled with gardens and wild spaces. The crack in the middle had been filled with dungeons. A million shadelings or more had made this place their home. It had been a nice place.

Right to the south lay the Black Gate Dungeon, which was still rather well defended, for that’s where Solomon had made his home and his base of power. Solomon and the people there had never seen whatever happened here; one day, Ascendant Mountain had been Ascendant Mountain.

And now Ascendant Mountain was this.

There was no land of crystal skyscrapers and a million shadelings all trying to simply live their lives and gardens filled with dungeons and danger and reward. Those few shadelings who had survived the attack moved to Candlepoint, to join those who still lived there in the Shadeling District. Those people didn’t know what had happened here, either.

Just a crater with some broken skyscraper-sized white crystal here and there.

The crater ran rather deep.

Erick opened up his aura and reached down into the broken ground, grabbing a few hunks of building-sized crystal. Some copying magic rapidly gave Erick a literal mountain of crystal that he suspended with a judicious use of gravity spellwork, and then came some Shaping magic. Raw materials flowed together. Dirt flowed outward, along with air and other impurities.

Soon, Erick had a sphere of quartz-like crystal several kilometers across, that was only partially quartz. It was more like Kendrithyst, Bluite, Stratagold, or the clear crystals of the Waiting Room; quartz-plus-mana. In this case Erick had wiped away whatever had been here before, and now there was Benevolence crystal, because that’s what Erick had on hand.

It was clear and lined in light.

Erick allowed the giant sphere of crystal to begin to crystalize for real, making shapes out of the flowing material. Giant crystals began to grow out of seed crystals, and then the whole thing began to grow much faster, for Erick was directing that growth rather strongly. He separated crystals, delineating growth, making sure everything was shaped as he wanted it to shape.

Soon, Erick set down a few kilometer-tall and rather-thick pillars into the ground. Then he [Duplicate]d them, until he had an approximation of Ascendant mountain. It was not the same, at all. These crystals didn’t have any shadows in them. They didn’t have any homes carved into them, either. What Erick had made was a monument to give rise to what he was doing next.

In the highest reaches of the crystal Erick created thick white crystal dais that he then copied several times over, stacking the stone on top of itself, to raise a pillar above all the rest. Some gentle Shaping magics made that pillar strong and tall and a single piece of brilliantly clear, shimmering crystal. Light split into rainbows. Lightning gathered along pointed edges.

The stone was kinda weak right now, though. This was a lot of weight. In normal circumstances the place would not hold on its own. What saved it from self-collapse was that it was half underground, and the direction of gravity once you got below the Surface was ‘toward the nearest, largest object’, so it didn’t weigh that much. Not really. Not any more than the upper 10% of all of the crystal towers of Ar’Kendrithyst, anyway. Some cracks still formed here and there in the upper reaches. Erick fixed those cracks, rearranged some things, and the cracks stopped forming.

Erick had done all he could do, though, for this wasn’t his place.

Erick sat down on the central dais. He called out to the air, “Hello, Melemizargo. Sorry I was gone. I’m back, and would like to talk.”

Shadows swirled, becoming Dark in the false light of ‘day’, the artificial sun overhead doing absolutely nothing to impact the gloom gathering in front of Erick.

Melemizargo resolved himself to a mere 25 meter tall dragon. He settled down on the white crystal, and Erick saw shadows swirl in the crystal. Erick had not left any impurities in the building of this place, but with Melemizargo taking over the gift he had given him, the place seemed more solid, at least five times over. It supported the multi-ton weight of the Dark Dragon, and it would probably support a lot more than that.

Melemizargo lightly said, “We’ve already moved back to Candlepoint. There was no need to rebuild this place, unless you want us gone from Candlepoint.”

“This can be a summer home, if you wish. I merely made it because I was sad to see it broken. It was a nice place.”

Silence.

They could have spoken about anything. They probably should have started on the important topics, like the Dark Mark and the Fractal Mark and Mind Mages and Nothanganathor and Margleknot and the fate in store for all of Veird, but especially in store for Erick and Melemizargo.

Maybe they could have started with why Melemizargo had failed to protect his Ascendant Mountain, or why he didn’t let Solomon remake it, or what was the story going on there. Were Solomon and Melemizargo at odds with each other? Maybe.

Erick let Melemizargo set the tone.

Melemizargo said, “I’m not sure where to start.”

Erick knew where to start.

Erick said, “I want you to know that I’m fully in favor of killing Nothanganathor. I want you to know that I’m going to rip him from his throne of convenient truths and End him in every way a person can be Ended. I’ll find a way to undo his Erasure through helping Solomon achieve Ascension and otherwise, and bring back everything Nothanganathor ever broke. I’ll figure out all the secrets of this cosmology and beyond and break everything that needs breaking so that it can be made better in that breaking and remaking.

“And I want you to be there with me.

“I fully expect for this to come down to a battle between me and him and you, and you and I need to be on the same side, because I want to see Nothanganathor obliterated and I believe you do, too.”

Melemizargo stared a little, seeming to turn softer in the moment of Erick’s proclamation.

Erick waited.

“I remember him now,” Melemizargo said, his voice filling the world. “I remember his little nodes of power he built everywhere, and how I used to pull at them to draw him to me, so that I could send his avatar back to him with new memories of pain. I spent a decade of real time pulling at those nodes once. After that he got creative and began putting his Sundering nodes into people, instead of into places. Those ones were much harder to find and I eventually stopped caring. I did not know they were Sundering nodes at the time. I did know that they Sundered small spaces when they were killed improperly…

“I let him cast his magic, though, because I believed he wasn’t a threat anymore.

“If I would have been a better god then this wouldn’t have happened.

“And yet, he was always like this. Always destructive and manipulative and coercive toward only his own gains.

“My first memory of him is all of us hatching in the clutch, and then fighting each other as dragons always do. We’re usually too tiny to really hurt each other and most escape instead of die. But when we all hatched together… I believe I was third to hatch. I opened my eyes and saw Nothanganathor first. He was a white hybrid of leviathan and true dragon. He was long, and curled around some blue thing that was still struggling against him, and his tiny arms were clenched on some membranous blue-scaled thing. He was pulling on what I would later realize was a wing. Nothanganathor was born without wings, you see. He hated them on others. He hated the leviathan part of himself most strongly. He recognized his own hatred in the very first moments of his life, when he saw our eldest sister’s blue wings and knew he would never have them. So he killed her for his own hatred.

“He was weakened by that struggle.

“I bested him, driving him out, but he killed our eldest sister and our youngest sister before that happened. The youngest one was green, and she was still in her shell when Nothanganathor ripped into her.

“It was just me in the end, the victor left to consume what remained in the nest, as dragons often do. I forgot about Nothanganathor after that.

“It wasn’t until I was much older that we met again.

“I was Second to my mother back then, and I was courting a woman.

“Nothanganathor killed that woman.

“He had been tracking the Second, which was me, and then he killed my woman, because he wanted to tear me apart piece by piece, which is what he usually does. He seems to have retained that part of himself, even to this day.

“I returned his pain to him every way I could, but our mother forbade me from killing him outright. He was to be my whetstone, our mother had said. She said I was only allowed to kill him when he presented a true danger, and not a rival.

“The torments escalated.

“Eventually, mother died, as you now know. The story of the true nature of the Goddeath poison was new, but… yes, I can see that is what happened.

“Mother created the tournament for Second, for the Passing of the Mantle. Nothanganathor was there, of course. I took his wife during the tournament. I tortured her for information on him, and that’s when I found out how much deeper our hatred for each other went. That was when I found out he had poisoned and killed our mother.

“Mother had known.

“The whole tournament was set up to enlighten me to the truth. She wanted to give me the opportunity to destroy her killer. Now was the time to go beyond the rules of engagement she had set, and murder Nothanganathor once and for all.

“The call to torment was too much, though.

“If I had simply done… If I had simply Ended Nothanganathor, then this never would have happened. I went for the torment-kill instead. I had not often misinterpreted my mother's words… But it appears I had. She told me to end him. I failed. I will not be making that mistake a second time, Erick.” Melemizargo looked at him, and said, “There will be no sparing, this time. It does not matter if he has chained this universe to self destruction and he holds those threats over our heads. If this universe has allowed Nothanganathor that sort of power over itself, even knowing what they now know, then this universe deserves to die for their hubris in setting up this Trial of True Opposites.” He sneered. “Or maybe only ‘the parts with life in it’ will be Sundered.

“That would be poetic.”

An eternal moment settled.

Melemizargo was spiraling, but he would never admit it.

Erick truthfully spoke, “We’ll find the full way through, Melemizargo. I need your help for that, and for everything that is to come.”

Melemizargo looked worried and sad for a moment, and then he banished those emotions and returned to being strong. “Bah! Of course I will help. Where do you want to start?”

“First: Thanks for protecting my family as much as you could. Everyone is saving each other now and again, so this much is to be expected, but none of them are quite comfortable thanking you directly except for maybe Jane, and only when she thinks no one is around, so that’s one big thing I needed to do.” Erick repeated, “Thank you.”

Melemizargo looked pleased, but he pretended nonchalance as he huffed, “Well of course I saved whoever I could. We’re allies in this.”

“We’re much more than allies in this, Melemizargo.” Erick smiled as he joked, “I’m even courting your great, great, super-great grandmother.”

Melemizargo relaxed and laughed. “She’s more like a crazy aunt. Fairy Moon is more like the great grandmother; she was always more reliable.”

They were past the hard part, it seemed. Or at least past the first of many different hard parts.

Erick asked, “So that creation story is the real one?”

“Oh yes. Shadow isn’t letting any of us forget that now that she is back. She arrived on this world like a dawning void, you know. Not a single one of us who were able to recognize that sort of thing could ever miss her presence. A great many memories cleared up in her arrival. Mostly the deep history.” Melemizargo said, “And speaking of which: I want to revive the Goddess of Knowledge. She will be able to give us a crucial edge on keeping Erasure at bay and might be able to help with ending that threat, forever. She might be able to help with reversing it. She was always against the destruction of Knowledge; she would be fully against Nothanganathor.”

Erick’s eyes were wide, his breath stilled. He focused. “What do we need to do for that?”

“Reviving a goddess of any sort is both an easy and incredibly difficult task. I will let you know when I know more. I think her body was released from the Red by the Day of Clouds, though Rozeta is still trying to deny that. She believes the Goddess of Knowledge would attempt to take over the Script. Perhaps she would. Therefore, I believe it would be best to let Rozeta decide to do something with the body instead of trying to pounce on it like treasure thieves.”

That was a lot.

Erick eventually nodded. “… Sure. That’s a few different Steps away from my main plans, but it’s good to know others are working on that— Can you include Solomon in this? He needs to be able to Establish Debby, and though we haven’t discussed it, I believe he has hit an absolute block on making Genesis unErase people.”

Melemizargo raised an eyebrow. “It would be more important for you to gain this power, Erick, but I can see wisdom in giving some knowledge to Solomon. No doubt it will end up in your hands anyway.”

“I assume so, too, but Solomon was the one who wanted all that, so I expect him to cleave through that Path as soon as he can. It is highly likely he needs to Ascend to True Wizard first.” Erick asked, “Do you know if he still has the killswitch in him, that I passed off to him?”

“He does,” Melemizargo said, “Rozeta has been rather strict with him, when she could be. It has probably hampered his progress overmuch.”

“Then I’ll need to untangle that web. Thanks for the direction.”

Melemizargo nodded, looking satisfied.

Erick continued, “Step Two is a [Hasted Shelter] for all of Veird. Can I count on your support with that?”

Melemizargo turned serious. “I do not know how Nothanganathor managed to corrupt the worldwide Shelter we imposed last time.” He glanced upward at the rent in the sky, then said, “The hole made by the enemies that struck here is nothing compared to the carving that the white bastard did to Quintlan.”

“I noticed some of that area. I did not linger long. Do you believe that the Day of Clouds and the subsequent magics we put up were enough to end his direct influence on this land? Could our [Shelter] idea work this time, to give us more time to prepare against him?”

Melemizargo said, “We could put our world into a Shelter and this time that Shelter would work, but Nothanganathor corrupted our previous attempt through an infiltration of Malevolence and small divinities, and that was only one of the ways in which he subverted us. He also simply has a larger domain. We could protect the world, but he could Erase an area of the space outside of our world that would be much larger than we can protect; a hundred thousand kilometers across, enveloping all of Veird and much of the space beyond. It would be a day of Sundering in a different sort of way; in an absolute sort of way. I believe that is his true weapon. That is why we must revive the Goddess of Knowledge; to protect ourselves through an Absolute Establishment that we do exist, and that our futures are bigger than Nothanganathor’s.”

Another deep proclamation.

Erick added his own proclamation, “When we win, whatever comes next will be better.”

Melemizargo smirked. “Everything can always be made better, eh?”

Erick smiled. “Exactly.”

There were some more small words about what came next, but Erick was on a schedule and he needed to leave, and Melemizargo recognized that without needing to be told.

Erick departed.

Hopefully the raising of Ascendant Mountain —and perhaps more the talk afterward— would bring the dragon God of Magic out of whatever self-imposed exile he had made for himself, for he clearly felt like this was all his fault. He did not say that, and Erick did not say it either; there were a lot of things left unsaid. From the Mind Mage Mark of the Fractal, to smaller things like Al being a Shade...

None of that needed to be spoken about right now.

Right now, the walls needed to be reinforced.

A lot of people were doing a lot to make that happen.

Primarily, Rozeta was working on implementing [Benevolent Cleanse] further into the Script, while the other gods were now finally able to solidify various weaknesses all around.

The Blue Corps already all had that spell in their Status, and they were all on the front lines right now, out on the outer two shells of Veird; the shells made of Koyabez’s the Silver Star. They were doing work. Thanks to the Establishment that Veird existed and the [Benevolent Cleanse], Erick didn’t need to make another Weaver-cleaner, and he did not want to. While he was rather sure that Nothanganathor couldn’t corrupt that magic through normal means, there were always abnormal means available, and there was no need to put out a spell that he wouldn’t be personally attending to all the time; not a spell with so much Elemental Destruction in it, anyway. The Blue Corps did have some of Erick’s [Infinite Imaging] magics, though, to target all the various prominences of Malevolence out there in the world, seeping in from the Edge. Those viewing spells were being watched over by various paladins of various gods to keep them working as intended.

Absolutely everyone was busy.

Some were more busy than others.

Some gods and people had lost hard in the last two years, and were rather more adrift than anything else. Melemizargo had almost been one of those gods. Things had looked really good after FENRIR went up, but then the hopeful future never fully materialized, and Nothor Beasts appeared having already eaten millions of people without most people noticing. Even the gods didn’t notice, because the gods had been corrupted, too.

They didn’t want to admit it, but Malevolence had touched all of them.

Erick had cleaned up a lot of that Red, like [Cleanse]ing cancers from a body, but now there were open wounds, and [Cleanse] was just the first step toward healing the body.

- - - -

Erick landed on a tiny island located on the string of islands known as Archipelago Nergal.

This particular island only had a few natural features; white sand beaches, a hill in the center that had a few hardy trees, some big rocks that served as a weather break, and some dune grass. It also had a temple in the shape of a lighthouse, high on the hill. It was a dedication to Sininindi, the Goddess of Sea and Storms. The temple had a garden to the side and a storage space underneath, and a tower with a crystal ball that shone light out into the world, and nothing else.

The lighthouse had one guardian.

Erick settled down on the island, keenly aware that the inhabitant of the island was panicking like a crazy person, her voice raising up and filling the air with expletives, for her goddess had told her that Erick was here to see her. Rapidly, the woman was at a window, looking outside. She had white feathers for hair and an owl mask on her face. She saw Erick standing there on the rocks leading up to the Church of Sininindi.

Tiza Nindi panicked.

Then she collected herself as best she could.

Soon, the Head Priestess of Sininindi was out of her hermit home on the second floor or the church, rushing down the stairs into the main worship area, and then crashing out of the door. She stopped in her tracks, there upon the rocks. She looked at Erick some more.

There was no true recognition on her face. All she saw was the Benevolent Wizard; a person she had never seen before, and never expected to ever see again.

There was no memory of all the times she had spoken with Erick about this or that; of her visit to Spur after Erick gave his lesson on Particle Magic, of her calling him an adulterer or making trouble later for Quilatalap in Storm’s Edge.

Storm’s Edge didn’t really exist anymore. Not as it was, anyway.

Almost at the very beginning, after the Day of Genesis, when Solomon sent Erick to FENRIR, Claws and probably a Leviathan had descended onto Storm’s Edge, long before anyone knew what either of those monsters were. The effect had been simple.

Storm’s Edge was gone.

Tiza Nindi smiled wide, exclaiming, “Welcome, Wizard Benevolence— Er— Wizard of… Uh.” Tiza realized she had fucked up somewhere along the line. She tried again. “Welcome, uh, Erick Flatt, or Apparent King? Uh… I don’t got nothing for ya here. Not sure why you’re here— Er…” She went silent. She suddenly exclaimed, “Welcome to Storm’s Edge!”

Storm’s Edge remained.

Reduced to a single island with one church and one priestess. Millions of people gone. The Regency Erased. The center of the Local Area Gate Network of Archipelago Nergal was not here, anymore; It was broken into pieces, with half of the network in Messalina and Destiny’s Freelands, and the other half in Eidolon, the other major city of Continental Nergal.

“Oh! I know why you’re here!” Tiza excitedly asked, “Have you come to pray to Sininindi? She’s a great goddess! Keeps the storms away… Er… Well she’s pretty good, but I guess you summoned a storm the other day, so, uh... Uh… She’s a minor goddess— Oh! You should invite her to the Pantheon! You could do that, right?!”

Erick wasn’t sure where to begin.

So Erick cut to the end, “I’m going to tell people that Sininindi helped with the Day of Clouds, because she did, though you might not have heard. As for the Pantheon, Sininindi is already a part of it.”

Tiza Nini’s owl eyes went wide behind her mask— And then she scoffed. “I can’t be lying about what happened to the sailors and such that come through here, sir! That’s not how good faith works. I’m the Head Priestess, and I should know!”

“It’s not a lie, Tiza. Maybe people told you you’ve been missing some memories? This is like that. Sininindi is temporarily missing memories, but they’ll come back, I’m sure.” Erick said, “Sininindi helped make the world free of the bad lightning, and that’s the Truth.”

Tiza almost had objections as Erick spoke, showing that she still had some of that absolute spine she used to have while facing overwhelming forces beyond her ability to influence. Her disbelief in Erick was a hint of the person she used to be. Her bullshit-meter went down, though. By the time Erick finished, Tiza had put away her objections and was quietly excited.

Tiza bowed, saying, “Thank you, sir. I don’t know what Sininindi did to deserve this, but I know she did her best.” Tiza rose and tears were in her eyes. “Thank you.”

Erick said, “Take care, Tiza.”

“I will, sir!”

Erick left through a ring of lightning.

Back on the island, Tiza started giggling like a schoolgirl.

And then Tiza shouted out in praise of storms and Sininindi, doing a little dance on the sands of the beach and talking about having some of that expensive beef she had been saving for a special occasion. Nothing was more special than the rise of her goddess! It was time to live like small-island royalty! And maybe she’d have some of that nice wine, too.

Erick didn’t watch her for much longer than that, though he did put some better food into her cold boxes and spruced up the temple when she wasn’t looking.

Erick continued onward to a different beach, in a different part of the world.

- -

A jut of black metal spiraled into an abyss of open air. It was not the only such spiral of dark material; there was a lot of that all over this land. What made this spiral special was that an ocean fell past it on both sides. The roar was incredible. The sights apocalyptic. Warm air met cold air and a storm raged ahead. The roil of clouds and lightning was one of the greatest storms Erick had ever seen this close, and it reminded him a lot of the world-sized [Terraforming] storms that spun across the surface of Fenrir. It had layers upon layers of black and grey clouds, fully enveloping the abyss ahead.

The abyss was the hole formed when the combined forces of the world shattered Quintlan and its Red Liches. The abyss traveled up five spheres of adamantium and down a good thousand kilometers into the stone Underworld of Veird. This particular space was one of the middle layers, just above the former Surface of Veird, made of adamantium. Far ahead and further into the storm, rivers of oceans fell down into clouds, deep into a hole in the world.

The hole was contained to the Fractured Citadels, and not much beyond those lands, but it was still 5,000 kilometers across. Death Throne, that land of liches that Quilatalap knew and had taught, and which had long ago gotten out of control, was no more. Erick had tried to make political gains with them many times, but they were mostly monsters living among monsters. The ones that weren’t monsters were outside of Death Throne, like Zenipeq Frostflower, of Frostflower. That former wraith had been transformed into a Benevolent Dragon long ago; one of the first, actually. Frostflower and its Dragon Queen survived, though the entire center of Quintlan did not.

Rain lashed what remained, and clouds covered most of the destruction.

A woman wrapped in torn cloth and broken, black adamantium, sat on a divot carved out of the black adamantium prominence. That was why Erick had come here, to this space; to meet a woman who was not really anywhere else these days. She had one arm resting on the prominence and the other simply there, on the carving that was her seat. Her bare feet dangled into the storm. Lightning sparked from the tip of the prominence, joining the storm, as an ocean fell past the sides of the lightning rod.

Sininindi shed tears into the rain, though Erick doubted that most people would have been able to see those tears through all the rest of the water. Maybe they would have seen her tiny frown, though.

Erick had never seen the Goddess of Storm and Sea like this before; so obviously mortal in shape and ability. She looked like a normal person. There was no weight to her. She had been diminished, a lot, and that emotional baggage was perhaps the only real weight she had.

Sininindi waved a hand, and the adamantium prominence twisted like the worst nails on a chalkboard that Erick had ever heard, forming another seat at Sininindi’s side. She said, “I didn’t used to be able to move adamantium like that, Erick.”

Erick sat down beside Sininindi, in the newly crafted seat. The rain was cold. The seat sparked with lightning. Erick didn’t mind. He said, “Things change, especially when the vast majority of your real followers are gone, and all that remains are unkind stories told in distant lands about you.”

Sininindi shook her head. “Aye.” She looked to Erick. “I didn’t ask you to do that for Tiza, but… Thank you. But why?”

She was deeply hurt. A lot of things had happened to her while Erick had been away. Erick hadn’t been sure how to approach her, for she was one of the few gods who did not simply show up right away when he was giving out gifts, so he knew something was up.

So Erick chose to approach Sininindi through Tiza.

Erick said, “Because I’m here to help the world and the people therein, and you are one of the people of this world, Sininindi.”

Sininindi breathed out, and it was not in relief; it was a struggle against a dark emotion.

She stared into the storm, saying, “When he took Storm’s Edge, Nothanganathor left Tiza there specifically to accomplish many things, from a taunt, to a corruption of purpose, to a weakening and a strengthening in turn. The annihilation of the liches of Quintlan solidified that strengthening. I have a new domain over the metal of this Genesis-made world... And yet, it is not who I am.” She was silent for a while. Erick let her have her silence; the roar of the ocean and the storm was enough to fill the space. And then Sininindi said, I used to be a lot bigger, Erick. Stronger. I feel I am finally gaining back something of my true self, and yet the pill contains poison right alongside power.” She moved on, “But I suppose you don’t need to hear about that right now. You’re working.”

“Right now I’m working with you. How are you feeling, Sininindi?”

Sininindi huffed a laugh that echoed across the entire storm. Lightning filled the world. An ocean roared and tornadoes formed, and then Sininindi’s laugh turned pained. The world cried with her, and rain fell in a deluge to rival the pouring ocean.

“I had a son! Everbless is gone!” she cried, “I had a people! I saw the world ahead and saw it was good. But it was all a trick! I don’t know where the trick begins or ends, so now all I want is him gone.” She pulled back. She evaluated herself. “This is a poison, Erick. What he has done to me. This hate he has infected me with is an evil in every sense of the word. It twists my very being upon an unfamiliar axis. A thousand years ago we would have called this a Darkening, but it was never a Darkening, was it? It was a Malevolencing.

“I need to be not-this, Erick, and yet I see that there is power here.” She waved a hand and the prominence of black adamantium at her right side twisted even more, lengthening into a straight spear. Lightning never stopped lashing against the tip of that spear… And then the spear folded and bent, twisted into a length of hatred that was less than usable. Sininindi scowled. “It is a power that is unfamiliar, which I see strength within, and yet I wonder if it is a power that I want to grasp at all.” She looked at Erick. “Adamantium should not be this easy to move. This should be Rozeta’s power, and yet it is somehow mine. The breaking of the world with a grand storm did that. All Nothanganathor has to do is corrupt a different version of myself into his minion and Nothanganathor will use those twisted mirrors to take down Fenrir and all of Veird. Like a repro of a god, turned to Malevolent purpose.”

Amid the storm and lightning and crashing ocean, Erick calmly said, “Let’s talk about that.”

Sininindi breathed. She looked to Erick, to judge if he was seeking to destroy her, or if the tone she heard was a true tone of help. And then she decided it didn’t matter, and she needed to speak anyway.

She started talking.

It wasn’t a long talk. The storm raged all around them, drowning out every word, even here at the center of it all, but Erick still heard just fine. Sininindi spoke of a life in another time and place, and of the trials that raised her toward a Spark of the Storm, and of how a God of Magic raised her to full divinity long, long ago. She had been a mother of oceans, a creator of hurricanes that wiped away worlds, a settler of seas and civilization beyond those seas. She had been tricked by countless people long before Nothanganathor ever came along. She had been beaten before. And then, among her most cherished memories, she had risen again in the eyes of little girls and boys who stood at their parents’ sides and watched the clouds roll in. Those times had been times of change, and being ‘lesser’ for a while. But she had grown out of those trials stronger than ever.

And yet, she had never been so thoroughly captured before. Made to dance to another’s tune.

“The rage is coming out again, Erick,” Sininindi finally said, “It is transformative. All the world has seen a storm and all the world wishes safety from that storm, but safety is a lie and I cannot guide anyone through this storm. It is beyond me. It is beyond any of us, for we are all so small and useless.”

Moments passed in relative silence.

Erick judged the moment paused enough, so he broke the silence, “I will make this world believe that better days are coming, because I know that better days are coming. I can’t offer much more than platitudes to you right now, but belief and hope is enough to begin to angle a world toward a better future, where actions create and forge better possibilities out of infinity. You’re being reforged, Sininindi, same as all of us. So how would you like me to appear to people, to speak on your behalf? Who do you want to be in the universe to come?” Erick gestured at the storm and the falling ocean and the black adamantium and the lightning, and then he moved that open gesture to Sininindi, and conjured forth a Benevolent crystal of [Terraforming]. The white crystal raged with contained power. “How about a Benevolent storm of creation?”

Sininindi looked at the crystal with barely-disguised want. And then she looked at Erick. “You’re not worried I would be used against you?”

“Would you like me to lie, or would you like the more comfortable truth that I’m willing to believe that you are an ally, because you are an ally?”

Sininindi’s eyes flickered with sparks and squalls.

And then she laughed once, and it was the release of a bitter, great tension.

Sininindi took the crystal, and said, “I choose to believe in you, too.”

Erick smiled a little. And then he asked, “How would you like the PR campaign to look?”

Sininindi said, “I believe in you Erick. Make of it what you will.”

“Then that is what I will do.”

- - - -

Days passed in rapid work to repair the world.

Erick met with Zolan and his Overseers of the House, and they were all thrilled that he was back. Zolan was having memory problems before Erick showed up, but that was due to some insidious sort of Malevolence that had infected him and kept him fucked up. The Day of Clouds removed that infection from him, and from many others, like Grand Elder Matriarch Lingxing, of Clan Void Song; Nirzir’s grandmother. All the world was healing now that the magical tumors were gone and normal Script-based healing could keep those tumors gone.

After the meeting with the Overseers, Erick had a private meeting with Kiri.

Gatemaster Kiri hugged Erick for a while, and Erick hugged her back. She whispered against his chest, “Welcome back, Erick.”

Erick smiled, saying, “Glad to be back. You ready to work on repairing the network?”

Kiri chuckled and then pulled back, her green eyes shimmering brightly. “Absolutely. I still can’t believe that Nothanganathor infiltrated Benevolence Itself down in Nergal and in the upper spheres. Do you know how he did that?”

“A corruption of Authority at the edges that simply went unnoticed due to a multiversal fact that among infinity, anything is possible.” Erick said, “But some things are so highly improbable that they might as well be impossible. Infiltration of Benevolence is one of them.” And then Erick painted a few diagrams into the air of new gate switching mechanisms, and said, “Yggdrasil has some good inputs on some new switch mechanisms that will work better than our current designs— as of 2 years ago, of course. If you haven’t made any other new gate-switch mechanisms, I want to implement these.” He handed Kiri a book that he plucked out of Elsewhere. “It’s all detailed here.”

Kiri eagerly took the book, flipping through it, her eyes going wide. “… Oh.” She closed the book and handed it back, asking, “Let’s do that. I also want to know more about that Awakening Machine that has Quilatalap so interested. Can they be repaired?”

Erick winced. “The Day of Clouds kinda fucked up that stuff, but my engineers tell me it’s repairable. I barely know anything about all that. Even the idea of it is kinda weird. It somehow ‘clarifies resons’ in a person, ‘awakening’ them to possibilities. Intellectually, emotionally, and in an ambition-related sort of way, the people that go into the machine are the exact same that come out. But the soul is refined somehow.” Erick shrugged. “Everyone reports having a clearer vision of their purposes in life, too.”

Kiri said, “I’m sure Quilatalap will figure it out. Let’s get to metal carving? And you can help me ferry people across the world for the Blue Corps and the civilization efforts to repair what the Day of Clouds broke. The Crossing is almost back up, so we’re already getting lots of [Telepathy] calls of people stranded and in distress.”

The news of people in distress was expected and painful, but Erick liked what he was seeing with Kiri being this much in charge. She had grown well into her chosen station of power. Erick went along with her desires, saying, “At your service, Gatemaster.”

Kiri chuckled.

And then they got to work inside [Hasted Shelter]s, making gate switches, taking breaks to respond to emergencies here and there.

One of those emergencies was a Claw attack on the outermost sphere of Veird.

It was a testing attack, of course. The Claws appeared all around the entire outer surface of Veird, above the silver, reflective metal that used to belong to the Silver Star, to Koyabez’s afterlife. That silver surface was destroyed and repaired on the daily by a constant hail of Nothor Beasts that mostly reflected away, but Claws could actually punch through the new Edge of the Script when they tried.

Erick responded to the attack with the same solution as last time; the dungeon city full of time-dilated monsters and life, the Script increasing the mana production of the site, and a [Benevolent Cleanse] [Spellsurge Weave] leading the way against the Red. It was a great solution, and this time they didn’t kill everything with vastly-increased mana generation; normal generation was more than enough.

The solution worked the same as it did last time, even as 10,000 Claws descended against the Silver Surface of Veird. It went exactly as Erick expected it to go, with his solution working and the Red evaporating into 10,000 different shatterings of re-balanced mana. That ‘10,000’ number was not an approximation, though. It was an exact number.

Nothanganathor’s attack was simply a testing probe. Real attacks did not come in such round numbers.

Anyway. Nothanganathor’s attack failed. The attack did not reach through to the Weaver site. It did not leave behind corruptive magics or Elements. It was simply a thing that happened, took 10 minutes to stop, and then Erick went back to repairing the Gate Network.

Rozeta stood with Erick on the lake in the center of Cloud City, as people were calling it. The Weaver map evaporated as Erick crushed it away to cancel its power, and white fragments passed away into the manasphere. Rozeta frowned at the situation, when it was over. She asked, “What was his goal?”

Erick shrugged. “To be an asshole?”

Rozeta frowned at Erick. “I know you make jokes in tense situations, but please, Erick.”

Erick laughed once. And then he looked around at his Cloud City, saying, “The place remains intact this time, since you didn’t need to do a whole lot to make the power flow properly, and I didn’t need to do a lot to make the Red problem go away. But this does bring me to an important thing: I need to know how to absorb un-intentioned mana from the environment, because, while I might have billions of mana and resons right now, that attack required around 5,500,000 mana and over 110,000 resons. The Day of Clouds cost billions of both. I’m not sure how much mana it cost Veird at all. I’m guessing trillions?”

Roseta hummed, then said, “A lot more than that.” She went silent in thought. She said, “The problem with environmental mana is that it often costs a lot more to take it in and make it a part of your own mana than it does to take in the intentioned-mana that resides inside of a person. It’s like… Eating a cooked potato is like Draining intentioned mana, but to eat ambient mana you have to grow the potato from a seed, first. You can do it, but doing that strains the soul…” She paused. She said, “You could probably figure out how to do it with your Mana Siphon, but it would require concentrated work the entire time… And… Uh. About that. Sorry about ‘nerfing’ your Siphon, as Jane likes to say.”

Erick chuckled. “Don’t worry about it.” Erick moved on, “So I know of a few people who do ambient-mana reclamation. Syllea, a few Witchhunters. All of them orcols because of the accumulation of ambient mana leads to rad formation. Don’t know of any dragons that do ambient mana reclamation— not unless they want to get monsterized. Because therein lies the problem with ambient mana reclamation: It leads directly to monsterization.” Erick asked, “Can True Wizards monsterize?”

“Yes, but you would recognize it if that were happening. I doubt you’d be affected by that issue. In fact, the only ones who I believe should use ambient mana at all are probably True Wizards.” Rozeta said, “Good news on the monsterization front, though: The erasure of Malevolence from Veird has dropped monsterization rates by at least 20%. Most monsterization does occur from various things trying to directly take in mana that doesn’t suit them, but the rate of bad-mana toxicity is down a great deal.” Rozeta said, “But… Anyway, Erick. You just gotta take in mana and make it yours. There’s no real secret to it. It’s hard work. Like carrying around dead weight that you’re trying to make live again. Most people succumb to the weight and falter. Most people don’t have billions of mana already inside them, though.”

Erick thought for a second. “Does the Authority of the Script make it harder to use ambient mana?”

“Nope. The bad side effects of mana accumulation are always mana crystallization, though. One of the reasons I don’t allow mana crystals to exist outside of ensouled rads or cores is because people will try to eat and accrete those pure mana sources and more than likely turn into monsters. That’s why most people in the Painted Cosmology were not mages or anything even close to that. By that same token, mana crystals were how most people accreted quickly and for power back in the Painted Cosmology.” Rozeta added, “You should know I’m not really happy with the idea of it being called the ‘Painted Cosmology’. It still seems wrong somehow.”

Erick smiled at that. “I’m sure it’ll grow on you.”

“That’s just it; I don’t think it will. Have you ever heard Yggdrasil refer to this universe as the ‘Fractal Universe’ outside of when you were talking to him about the subject? No; you did not. ‘Uber-universe’, maybe. ‘Over-universe’, sure. But to reduce the whole thing to a simple name like the ‘Fractal Universe’?” Rozeta shook her head.

Erick smiled at that. “A valid complaint. Come up with a better name, then?” Erick looked around, his senses still on high alert for something untoward from Nothanganathor. “I should probably spend another hour or so here, waiting for the other shoe to drop.” He conjured a bench for him and a bench for her and sat down, as he opened a few tens of portals all around, saying, “We can talk and work.”

Rozeta sat down and crossed one leg over the other as she made her bench more comfortable, saying, “I’m already doing a million other things. Mostly watching the walls. Ever since the Day of Clouds and those new manaminers got installed, the whole Script has been working a lot smoother than I ever thought possible. I thought I was working with a perpetually-failing system that I forced to keep running with literal prayers and hard work, but the system was simply clogged with problems I was unable to see because the Script was unable to see them, too.”

Erick was glad for that. “My friend Poi asked about making the Script stronger like my own crystal self; infinitely dense. I didn’t think it was possible. It’s not possible, right?”

Rozeta shook her head a little. “Not possible. I’ve looked into that specifically. But speaking of Ascensions to True Wizard… You shouldn’t give any more hints to Solomon and Destiny. That truly is something that everyone has to walk on their own, or they’ll get to the top and then find that their foundations are fractured.”

“I likely won’t be helping them any more on that avenue, at least.” Erick said, “I would like Solomon’s kill switch removed, though.”

Rozeta frowned a little. “… I probably should, Erick. He’s still one of father’s repros, though— And I know that’s a touchy subject and you already have objections, but he’s literally not you and no amount of mortal-level choices are going to change that.”

“… I suddenly feel as though you mean something deeper than surface level.”

“ ‘Origin-level’ would be more apt. To simplify it a great deal… Consider the worldline. Yours is your time from when you were born to where you are now. That thread of your life is composed of many different parts, from where you were fully present and the thread is thick, to the parts that passed you by and the thread is thin. Stuff in the past is more solid than stuff in the future. Nothing was fully solid until you became a True Wizard, because before then your body was continually churning through parts that were you and then not-you, as you lived and grew and changed. When you became a True Wizard you turned your worldline ‘thread’ into a solid cable of adamantium. It would be much easier to kill you physically than through any sort of Wizardry and such, so you should keep an eye on that. Trapping is also a danger.”

Erick nodded. “Good advice.”

Rozeta nodded. “As for Solomon and the other repros...

“Every repro started off as a slime born in the Dark. That’s where their worldline begins, and every single repro is very clearly a repro to everyone who knows how to look.” Rozeta said, “It’s like a slime decided to take a spin around your worldline and become a copy of what they saw, while their own personal start is still very clearly in the Dark.”

Erick looked on through tens of different lands, fixing up Gate Networks here and there alongside Kiri, who was doing most of her work with the Blue Corps right now, returning the warriors back to their bases with the engagement called off, her [Familiar] Sunny doing a fantastic job of letting her be in 11 places at once. Erick also considered Rozeta’s words.

Erick said, “I thought that things would have gotten better in the past 2 years with Solomon working the Black Gate and all of that.” Erick looked to her, asking, “What about Ezekiel? That whole plot to have a replacement for me if I would have faltered back then? These people should be treated like people, even if you won’t treat them as you treat me.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Erick.” Rozeta said, “I will absolutely take whatever I can get, but it’s still difficult to trust my father.”

Erick solidly said, “Trust is hard.”

There were a lot of meanings there.

Rozeta caught them all, and rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah yeah.”

- - - -

The Blue Corps headquarters was actually inside Ar’Kendrithyst, in the upper layers. It was located at what used to be the Armory.

Quilatalap’s former Trials of the Dark had been thoroughly abandoned when the Shades had abandoned the city. When Anhelia began retaking the land, the Armory had become a point of contention between a whole bunch of various forces, but mostly Stratagold all the other Geodes which all wanted prime representation in the new land.

This was because Erick had put a small Gate Network inside Ar’Kendrithyst, at the Armory, which led to many different Geodes. Erick had done this mini-Network for the Geodes because the Geodes had asked for it, and he had built it at the Armory because the Armory had a nice ‘Central Avenue’ leading directly north from the place, and that central avenue was home to many people and businesses which all moved in under Queen Anhelia’s new reign. Most everything important was near the Armory, in every direction. Brightwater had been the heart of Ar’Kendrithyst (though the new heart was certainly where the Forward Base of Spur used to be, in the north) but The Armory was practically the lungs; not a lot of the outside world got to see the heart, but it certainly saw the lungs.

And so, the Armory was a point of contention.

Who got to build here? Who got to do anything there at all?

And then the Day of Genesis happened and the Blue Corps came into being and they needed some central space for a bunch of powers to gather, so they kinda smashed through all the points of contention and built right in the center of Ar’Kendrithyst.

The Trials of the Dark did not look how they used to look. No longer was the land mostly open, with a giant mushroom-like black dome in the center, with four side-mushrooms acting as side-Trials.

The Blue Corps grew here.

The buildings were skyscrapers and bridges of imported Bluite crystal from Geode Bluite. What had once been black and solemn, and then had been a series of craters after Last Shadow’s Feast drew all sorts of grave robbers out of hiding, and which then became a land of contention in Anhelia’s New Kendrithyst, was now a shimmery blue brilliance. It was about the most-accessible, brilliant-blue part of the world, and it reminded people a lot of the Core. Blueite was just as insular as Stratagold and all the other Geodes, after all. This show of blue was as rare and beautiful as it was a mark of concerted effort against the Red.

The Blue Corps had offices from every major power in the world.

Erick was interested in the map rooms right now.

Erick opened a lightning portal and stepped into one of the many different map rooms he had made and then installed within an [Infinite Imaging] and a bunch of tech from Margleknot over the last few days. The people in those different rooms went through many different imaging scenarios, all under the watchful gaze of Illustrious Moon, from House Fae of Ar’Cosmos, and Inquisitor Kromolok of Stratagold and Rozeta’s Church, and a few other larger powers, taking control over other individual maps.

Everyone was cooperating with everyone else these days, except for the Angels and Demons, which Erick would get to eventually. Ar’Cosmos, in particular, was working overtime on cooperation. They had gained a lot of new allies in light of the Red Sparks, because the Fae Realm was one of the ways in which the people of this world managed to evacuate from Red attacks now and then.

Inquisitor Kromolok noticed Erick first. He turned, his full-white body and incani-countenance going from concerned over whatever it was they were scanning for right now, to a little relieved. He was full of questions upon seeing Erick, but he realized rather fast that he’d get a few of those questions answered if he simply allowed others to go first.

Illustrious Moon, with her giant amethyst horns and bright purple eyes, took Erick’s arrival with a bright squeal of absolute delight. It looked adorable on the large woman. “ERICK! You’re back! And we’re going to be distant cousins!”

Erick smiled at that. “I can chat a little, so pardon me for being fast. How is the mapping going? That is what I came here for.”

“Wonderfully.” Illustrious Moon got right down to business, saying, “We’re going through the lists of missing persons and finding tracks, at least. Sometimes we find actual people. The auto-cleansers you have set up at the map and elsewhere haven’t activated at all, so no Malevolence has seeped through the Infinity of this new Scanning Magic, but we’re activating our new [Benevolent Cleanse]s anyway every time we put in a new target. We haven’t spotted any dissolving Red, so we’re pretty sure that there hasn’t been any attacks.” She added, “We’re also very careful to only limit our Scans to Veird-space after that incident in the beginning. That hasn’t happened again.”

Some guy had input a scanning target for someone and not limited the scan to Veird space in the beginning. That target ended up pinging on Fenrir’s shell, and Red invaded the entire map room. No one was injured because they shut it down fast, but that guy was not in the map room anymore. Erick had recast all the magics here after that, just to make sure there weren’t any hidden tricks, or whatever.

Erick didn’t think the guy had meant any harm by it, and accidents happen, but it was too large of an accident for the people here to let go. There had been talk that the guy had been a Nothanganathor sympathizer. That talk hadn’t borne out any fruit, though.

A sympathizer was a specific kind of person, and that guy hadn’t been one of them.

They weren’t face stealers; not exactly.

But they kinda were. Maybe. Sympathizers were suspected copies of people from other side realities that were predisposed to thinking Nothanganathor was right to kill Melemizargo. The first sympathizers had been noticed last year, but they were among the hardest of enemies to find, because they were just normal people who hated Melemizargo and wanted him gone.

And yet, the ‘Nothanganathor Sympathizer’ might not even be a real thing.

It might just be a phenomenon of paranoia.

“Have you found any real Nothanganathor sympathizers?” Erick asked, hating that he needed to even ask that. “Real ones.”

Kromolok spoke up, “It’s still an unproven theory that Red Repros even exist, for even the gods cannot tell them apart from normal people. But all the evidence on the ground supports that Red Repros do exist. And if not them, then mundane sympathizers very much do exist, Erick. A lot of people would rather have Melemizargo gone.”

Erick cast his gaze to the other maps, in the other rooms of the Blue Corps Map Compound. “Looks like no real confirmation of Red Repros, though, based on what I’m seeing?”

Illustrious Moon said, “Sympathizers surely do exist. The Erased One has power more than from Malevolence, and he has gifted that power to the people of this world to sow destruction when he calls for it.”

“Confirmation is the most difficult part,” Kromolok said. “We’re not judging people for taking his power; only for using it.”

“All we’ve really found are petty criminals,” Illustrious Moon said. “The Day of Clouds got rid of the actual face stealers. Also: I heard you were going to make Sininindi responsible for that.”

Erick raised an eyebrow. Illustrious Moon had spoken her words like she was making an accusation of a misappropriation of power. Well. Hmm. Erick decided to simply say, “It’s the truth. Sininindi helped a lot, long ago, and that help continues on until today. It’s not my fault you guys haven’t met all of her fractal selves in other slices of reality.”

Illustrious Moon decided to move past that, and said, “Very well. Where are you off to next?”

“I need to speak to the minotaur nations and the Angels and Demons.” Erick said, “But before that: What can I do for you? For either of you. Individually or together or however it comes.”

Illustrious Moon was suddenly without words. She looked like Erick had gifted her a ‘white elephant’, though that phrase hardly really applied when it came to dragons. How would you pay for the upkeep? The grounds that it would live upon? A dragon would simply eat it.

Kromolok answered first, simply stating, “Talk to Ascendant Prime about the Mark of the Fractal.”

“Already on the list. Does it need to happen now?”

“Within the hour.”

“Then it’s at the top of the list.” Erick asked Illustrious Moon, “Any requests?”

Illustrious Moon decided, “We want to pair up some people with Quilatalap and the Inquisitors and all the rest as you delve into what makes the Awakening Machine work. I know it’s a big ask, considering the history between us and your lover, but… I am still asking for that.”

Erick was a little bit stunned by such a request for a few different reasons. He had thought that Quilatalap’s hatred of the fae had gone to the wayside in light of all the much larger problems out there, and how everyone was cooperating with each other right now. Weren’t Quilatalap and the fae getting along right now? Erick had thought so. Maybe he was wrong. And so, Erick treated Illustrious Moon’s request with the seriousness it deserved; she wouldn’t be asking such a thing in such a way unless there was an actual problem.

Erick said, “Quilatalap is heading up that project along with a few Shades, for Melemizargo is involved there because the whole thing kinda infuriates and baffles him; calls it an ‘affront to divinity’. Ask Quilatalap, and see what happens. I will also ask. You truly would be better served by learning how computers work at all, Illustrious Moon. That needs to come first. The magic in the Awakening Machine is incredibly esoteric.” Erick added, “Either way, that technology is going out to the entire world.”

Illustrious Moon had assumed a deflection and a denial-in-parts, and she was not disappointed in that way. She did a little curtsy, and said, “Our requests are already on file. It’s been a day of no-answer.”

“Ah… That is more easily handled. Be right back.”

Erick departed.

- -

Erick reappeared at the House Benevolence Awakening Machine Research Center, the AMRC.

The place was perhaps the most secure and least secure building on the planet right now. Located north of the Gate District, the AMRC was a collaborative effort of about 135 different peoples to tear apart and understand everything there was to understand about the Awakening Machine. Erick had several of those machines, each working overtime with people stepping in and Awakening their auras, base mana production, and also a low-level Elemental Body, because here on Veird that’s what the Script made of the person who stepped into a machine.

Being inundated by an Awakening was like a person had put on a piece of Elemental Body armor and then absorbed that Elemental essence into their souls, except the machine didn’t use essence at all. It only used elemental-charged metal plates that Erick had set up with a node network and some magical imbues to keep those elemental plates charged up all the way; it was the better solution to replacing the metal plates every 10 Awakenings. Erick had said that he could find a more permanent solution to [Duplicate]ing elemental metals, and he had.

People from all walks of life were currently deciphering everything about the machines that they could, because how they were giving people Elemental Bodies was just one small part of their mysteries. The biggest mystery was how it empowered the Dark Mark in a person.

Erick looked around the center. There were a bunch of different forces in meeting rooms, poking around at some disassembled Awakening Machines and mostly arguing with the tech guys about how stuff worked. The tech guys were kinda furious when the mages just went around touching stuff, but also kinda miraculously happy with the powers the Script had granted them. The tech guys could poke at some broken thing with [Mend] and repair it easily, for tech was not magic, and [Mend], when stressed to perfection, easily repaired broken, highly complicated, small things.

It was only day-4 since this whole thing had started, so most people were still in the organizational stage.

The Shades, Quilatalap, and House Benevolence’s Office of the Overseer of Magic, were the only people really understanding what was going on with the magic and soul-influencing of the machines at all, but then again, not really. Yggdrasil was the only one who really understood it all, and he was having trouble getting the rest of them to understand the machines because there was a lot of base knowledge that simply wasn’t there.

And the Script obscured souls.

Erick zipped through the air and landed in a giant hangar with a bunch of disassembled machine parts, diagrams in lightwards everywhere on every wall and in the air, and Quilatalap coming to terms with whatever Yggdrasil said about— What was it? Oh. Souls—

Oh.

Yeah. He could see why Quilatalap was having problems. While Shade Fallopolis and Goldie looked on, and Queen poked around at diagrams at the walls, and Al was nowhere to be found because he made himself scarce whenever Erick showed up—

Quilatalap shook his hands at the diagram in front of him, saying, “But if there is no universal Fractal Mark, how do people cultivate resons? Where is the foundation for a growth when there is no foundation to be had?”

Yggdrasil said, “That’s the thing. Most people don’t cultivate resons. Either way, the foundation comes second.” He looked over to Erick, raised an eyebrow as he probably sussed out everything that Erick wanted to talk about, and probably through some rapid, full-world mana sensing, and then said, “We’ve got all those papers for requests to join the ARMC on hold. Everyone wants to send their best people here but we need people on the front lines still, and the researchers on Malevolence are actually making progress now that they can contain the Malevolence to a small area and not be swimming inside invisible Malevolence, and fucking up everything they’re trying to study. Ar’Cosmos was doing a lot of good research in that direction. They truly should get back to that.”

Erick nodded. “That answers that question. Illustrious Moon will simply have to wait until we’ve secured Veird from annihilation.”

Quilatalap hadn’t even flinched at the mention of Illustrious Moon, and by extension all the other fae, which was good. Erick didn’t expect him to have a reaction against any fae right now, not years past the last incident with one of them, and when they were all in a war for the very survival of Veird. Quilatalap had flinched a lot when Erick spoke of Shadow and had all those necessary conversations, but he seemed fine with the Fae… as much as he could be, anyway.

It seemed that Illustrious Moon’s request had hit a blanket stop, not a personal denial, though Yggdrasil was giving her a personal denial now, if she really wanted a proper answer.

Yggdrasil said, “We’re getting closer to the security of Veird, We’re not there yet, and we won’t be until Nothanganathor is gone, but we’re closing the window on him. He will act soon.”

Quilatalap said, “Just tell House Fae to send whoever they want, Erick, and tell her I’m offended that she even needed to go through you to begin with. I understand what is at stake right now. Tell her I helped them set up all those Malevolence research centers, too. I had thought her battlefield was already full.”

Erick smiled a little. “Sure.”

Quilatalap went back to his diagrams.

Shadows curled around the edges of the space, the Shades watching current events with bright white eyes. Quilatalap was frustrated with a great many things right now, but the look on his face was the one he got when he was truly interested in a project. Erick hadn’t seen that look on that man since he decided to become the world’s premier dungeon master.

Erick said, “I’ll catch you all later, then. I’ve got work.” He did a little nod to Fallopolis, Goldie, and Queen. “Ladies.”

And then Erick left.

- -

Erick stepped into the Blue Core Map Center again and gave Illustrious Moon the news. He could have done that with a letter, like the one that the AMRC had already sent to her, but it was important to appear everywhere he needed to appear, and to coordinate everything he needed to coordinate, and erase all the friction that he could possibly erase.

Illustrious Moon took the ‘not available right now’ better from him than she had from the letter, saying, “It’s good that there are no diplomatic issues. We were afraid of that.”

“Don’t you already have all your best people on some Malevolence research areas, anyway?”

“We did,” Illustrious Moon said. “Some people went back to that, but after the Day of Clouds ended all projects and forced everyone to start over, some people just could not go back to that, not after a good 19 of them turned out to have been replaced by Malevolent face stealers who had been sabotaging all projects. I do not blame them for their desire to move on.”

Erick’s eyebrows went up. He decided, “End the Malevolence research. Send the people to the Awakening center, and explain these things to Quilatalap or whoever is there. We don’t really need much Malevolent research anyway. Seems almost too dangerous to touch.”

“I agree,” Illustrious Moon said, smiling a little. “Smashing it apart is a much better demonstration of what it’s good for.”

Kromolok spoke up, “Ascendant Prime, please, Erick.”

“Right right!” Erick opened up a portal. “Later!”

And then he was off again.

- - - -

Erick stepped off a part of the ‘Second Layer’ above the ‘Former Surface’ onto a land of Mind Magery and a whole bunch of people living out in the open for the first times in their lives, with all of their mind tendrils getting everywhere. Cerebrum was the name of this place. It was the Mind Mage city; the first of its kind in living memory. Usually these things ended rather horribly with the Mind Mages getting persecuted by this people or that people, with the Mind Mages unwilling to fight back through Mind Magic and prove themselves an enemy.

There was a lot of controversy surrounding this place because Mind Mages were still incredibly powerful; to a normal person this land was full of ‘archmage-level’ people. But controversy was everywhere these days, and the Mind Mages were taking the chance with a singular city, because a lot of Angels and Demons were former Mind Mages, newly risen in Genesis, and they wanted a true neutral ground. This was their neutral ground.

And now, just the other day, Erick had exposed that Mind Mages had proven both uniquely susceptible to Malevolence, and also uniquely resilient, and then there was the information about the Fractal Mark. The current Knowledge Mage reports were filled with rumors that Nothanganathor was leaving the Mind Mages alone because of some Mind Mage bomb that he was waiting to trigger at the exact right moment. Before all that, though, Cerebrum had been a city of peace and prosperity.

Despite all that, Cerebrum was still a lively, nice city, that had everything anyone could ever want, and was probably the place that Erick would be hosting some Angel/Demon peace talks later.

And yet, people were leaving fast. It was an unfortunate thing to happen, but they kinda were threats, without meaning to be. Erick hoped that he could solve that whole gordian knot today, or soon, before Nothanganathor did something weird with the people here.

Erick walked down a wide road that still had people going about their business. Cerebrum was still populated, but it was emptying fast. That’s what people did in this day and age of random, impossibly dangerous monster attacks. Some people had probably left through the Dungeon Gate Network.

It wasn’t a ghost town, though. People still went to the bakeries and to the schools and lawyers offices.

A few people on the street looked at Erick like they didn’t understand what they were seeing. That was mostly because Erick looked like the Apparent King, and yet that would be crazy, right? What was he doing here?

Erick was going about his business, that’s what.

The local Mind Mages stopped trying to poke at Erick with their tendrils and instead decided to leave well enough alone. The street started to empty; not quickly, not in a rush. But it did empty.

And then subtle little mind tendrils wove through the air, directing Erick into a nice little bakery to the left.

Rizala, Poi’s sister, owned the place. She also worked here. After her maternity leave was over and the Day of Genesis created a whole bunch of new lands and this whole city of Cerebrum came into being, Rizala ended up going back and forth from this place a lot. Rizala, her husband Variol, and their child Kenni, still technically lived at the cloud castle at Candlepoint, but this place had their people, and she wanted to be here. She was still technically on maternity leave right now, but she couldn’t sit that still.

Rizala looked almost the same as her brother, Poi, with the same sapphire scales and semi-strict sort of face, but she moved with an easier grace than stiff-backed Poi as she took some bread out of the ovens in the back of the shop, and set it down on a cooling rack. Erick was the only one in the store right now. Variol and Kenni were at school, down the road, at a parent-teacher-faculty meeting about the current state of affairs and what they were doing going forward. Variol wasn’t a Mind Mage, and not everyone was, so they did these sorts of things in public spaces like normal people; because that’s what Mind Mages wanted to be, just normal people.

But the fact remained that they were not normal people, and that they needed special considerations long before this Malevolence-specific-weakness came about. Thus, Ascendant Prime was everywhere here in Cerebrum, along with an assortment of other Ascendants who picked up or discarded names however they saw fit. It was because of those Ascendants that Cerebrum had been completely safe from Malevolent actors these past two years… Theoretically.

The Mind Mages were pretty safe from the war games of the Angels and Demons, though, and that safety was still true.

Rizala saw Erick, startled, and then grinned and turned normal and relaxed for a moment, and then her eyes glinted divine gold.

Poi had only ever been a ‘right place, right time, will-you-let-me’ sort of solution for Erick to talk to the Ascendant Minds, and Ascendant Prime in particular. Rizala had specifically chosen to become the go-between of Ascendant Prime and much of the world a while ago, while Erick had been gone. It was still kinda weird for Erick to speak to Rizala like this. Erick was used to Poi talking with Ascendant Prime’s voice.

Things had changed.

Ascendant Prime spoke with Rizala’s voice and body, saying, “I wondered if those visions on the streets were true. Give me a moment and I’ll be ready.” Her eyes glinted a bit more gold as her hands flexed the air and the ovens turned off and were instantly cool, as though they had not been on at all. Rizala and Ascendant Prime grinned. “I learned some Wizardry! Or resonwork, if you prefer. It’s probably closer to resonwork. It’s rather difficult to do, but I have been able to use reson donations from the entire network in order to create and alter things. Once you notice these things then even the obfuscation of the Script is easily observed.”

“Not to be hasty,” Erick said, “But I heard there was something of an emergency.”

Ascendant Prime paused. And then she made an ‘ah’ face. “Kromolok is correct that this is important and that I wished to speak with you as soon as possible, but it just came up in the last few hours. I would have found time later tonight to speak with you at the cloud castle if you had not shown up sooner.”

Erick focused.

Several things could have happened. Chief among them, though...

Erick guessed, “You finally made contact with Margleknot.”

“We did,” Ascendant Prime said. “We put the Crossing back up enough to cross some sort of invisible threshold and whatever sorts of Fractal Marks we have inside of ourselves were rapidly connected to the Greater Universe. The Fractal Fairy, as you call Them, spoke to me.”

Erick was suddenly worried and thrilled, and then he focused on the worry. Rizala looked okay… “Are you okay?”

Ascendant Prime’s eyes glinted gold as she made a little tilting, unsure-motion with a hand. “We’ll be fine. No mortals were harmed in the contact. A few Ascendants are still pulling themselves together but it’s really hard to kill an Ascendant. Which makes sense. Apparently, we’re technically fae.”

Erick paused.

Fae?

And then Erick laughed. “Fae?! What!”

“Moving right along—”

“Waitwaitwaitwait.” Erick asked, “Back up there?”

They would not be backing up, though, because—

Shadow and Fairy Moon stepped into the conversation. Or rather, they sat down into the conversation, at the table to the side where a bunch of pastries had turned from a display-for-sale into a display-for-eating. Coffee and tea were served as well, and the table was big enough for all four of them to sit around.

Shadow softly smiled, saying, “Hello, Erick. I wanted to wait on this, but we can’t wait anymore.”

Fairy Moon said to all of them, “We are going to win this war but Erick does not need to know how to kill fae yet.” She repeated, “Yet.”

“And I disagree,” Shadow said, “There is no way that Nothanganathor hasn’t attained some level of Eternity, even if it is in single-use form. Probably larger than single-use, what with his Sign of Power. The Ascendant Minds are only half there and they’re already rather unkillable via all traditional methods. This whole conversation is connected.”

“These Mind Mages don’t need to know either, Shadow,” Fairy Moon said.

Shadow said, “The Mind Mages already know.” She looked to Ascendant Prime. “Or they’re able to put it all together easily enough.”

Ascendant Prime said, “We ended up contacting the Fae Enclave directly, and a few different halfway-houses of Mind Mages out there in the rest of the universe.” She sat down at the table, saying, “It was enlightening.”

Erick supposed he should sit down, too, so he did. “There are a lot of things I haven’t even touched upon yet, because there is too much to be done right now.” He wrapped them in a [Hasted Shelter]. Ascendant Prime had a moment of slowness because most of her was outside of the Shelter, but she adjusted fast enough. When she was fully present, Erick continued, “Like the Fractal Mark at the center of Mind Mage magics, and how I want to open and use that power, and how to use that power, and also how to negate Nothanganathor’s Sign of Power, which is apparently this thing called ‘Eternity’?”

“It’s all tied together,” Shadow said. “To the thing called Life.”

Fairy Moon relegated herself to the fact that this was happening. She sighed. And then she asked, “Do you know why most fae start life small?”

“Firstly, I haven’t really seen any small fae, and all the small fae I’ve seen are purposefully small and I doubt that is what you meant.” Erick said, “But I can make an educated guess to this brand new information you’re telling me.”

Shadow and Fairy Moon both raised eyebrows at that. Ascendant Prime just watched through Rizala.

Shadow asked, “You never saw a baby fae before?”

“Nope.”

Fairy Moon frowned. “But we have a baby fae in Ar’Cosmos. You saw him. He’s Grub. He’s still a baby, too; barely ten thousand years old.”

“This is literally new information for me.”

Fairy Moon said, “Big eyes, grey scales, kinda lizard-like— You have seen him!”

Erick did recall something that stood out to him, now that he was thinking about it. It was a lizard-like grey thing that haunted every windowsill of Fairy Moon’s mansion in Ar’Cosmos. Erick hadn’t seen that thing since then, and he certainly hadn’t thought about it. “That was a fae? I thought that was a guardian to keep me from escaping from the windows.”

“That’s Grub!” Fairy Moon said. “He’s a baby so he escaped being confined to the Elemental Fae Bands of Intent, mostly because I kept him intact. He doesn’t do diddly but guard great places of power and pretend to be powerful by way of appearing innocent in incongruent scenarios, and yes, he might have munched on you, but he wouldn’t have killed you. Just kept you still for a second or several.”

Shadow countered Fairy moon, “Grub would have taken his legs to keep him still. Arms too, maybe.”

Erick suddenly remembered— “Oh! Tasar once told me about a second fae in Ar’Cosmos… Why is this the first time I’ve heard of his name?”

“Because when people pursued him I killed them most cruelly,” Fairy Moon said, solidly. “But he is a baby fae, so yes, you have met a baby fae.”

“I guess I have.” Erick moved on, making a guess regarding Fairy Moon’s question on the nature of small fae and how they grew, saying, “Baby fae are small and unformed because their ‘Simple As’ purpose has yet to rise to the level of self-reflection and multiplicity that is required for them to be a person who walk streets and buys bread from bakeries and pays taxes. That takes thousands of years. Small fae are vulnerable in this time frame more than most, either from soul magics or from a corruption of purpose, like taking a waterborn fae and trying to raise them in the desert. They wouldn’t necessarily die, but they would become something they were not.”

Shadow smiled, saying, “Paying taxes is something we almost never do.”

Fairy Moon paused. She went, “That’s the mostly-true truth there; you sussed that out rather succinctly.”

Shadow chuckled. And then she added, “It’s not a bad thing to take the water fae and put them in a sandy environment. It might kill them, yes, but it might spur their growth.”

Fairy Moon said to Shadow, “I hope you would never do such a switching, Shadow. That sand pit might have grown its own growth, but such an action would have purloined the purpose of both locations and only originated one life instead of two. Sure, the two people take more time, but we have a terrific amount of time.”

Erick left that particular conversation alone and extrapolated what another part of this conversation was about, saying, “Ascendant Prime has come to this ‘Simple As’ existence from the other direction; through multiplicity they are remade every time pieces fall apart—” Erick had a moment.

A completely different idea suddenly came to him.

About creating an environment and then filling that environment.

He looked at Shadow, Fairy Moon, and Ascendant Prime, and asked a question he felt like he already knew the answer to, “If we create a gap in the world that is where an Erased person is supposed to be, will that gap be filled with the person that got Erased? Or is this ‘from something: a fae’ phenomenon only usable to make more fae? And can we use the Fractal Mark to do this? To implant memories in people about those who should exist, and thus make those people who have been Erased once again whole?”

The idea had just sort of plopped out there and it wasn’t fully formed at all, but…

It was there.

Most of the pieces.

Ascendant Prime was suddenly having a moment, too.

Rizala’s gold eyes dimmed as Ascendant Prime went Elsewhere for now. He was still there, in the background, but he wasn’t currently inhabiting Rizala, and now Rizala was sitting with arguably the 3 most powerful people on the planet. She was used to 1 powerful person; not 3, and certainly not the Creator of the Painted Cosmology.

Rizala tried to keep her calm as she asked, “Anyone care for some tea— Ah. The tea is already here.” She added, “But I have special blends.”

Shadow smirked, saying to Rizala, “I saw the special blends, but I wasn’t about to take them without being offered. I would love some special blends of tea. Perhaps that darkly floral one you have back there?”

“At once.” Rizala got up and went to the space behind the glass displays, to the tea and coffee prep area. She got out some packets, offering, “I have ‘Dark Garden’?”

“I’ll take it,” Shadow said.

Fairy Moon was having a moment, too, which is why she had been quiet. And then she huffed a little, chuckled once, and said, “I suppose we can push past all the carefully constructed cause and creation speeches and soliloquies I had prepared previously and arrive at the simple start of an answer to Erasure just like that.” Fairy Moon said, “Be forewarned, father of futures: It is not easy to make a miracle like the one that you have sighted on the most distant of horizons. You likely won’t be able to actualize it at all. You must find another to grab this gain.”

“Solomon can do it,” Erick said, “Now that we have a battle plan.” He said, “I would like to hear your speeches on the nature of Life and Eternity, though, if you would say them.”

Fairy Moon shook her head a little. “You have a small solution. The powerful prayers I have sorted can be saved for Solomon. We also felt it best for him to behold these truths, but we wished to approach you for your acumen first. Now that we have it, we will begin plans to plot for Solomon’s security of power.”

Erick nodded. “Great! Moving on, then:” He said, “I would like to know your opinion on the nature of the divinity of Ascendant Prime. Is he a Fractal God, or a Painted God? Beholden to the masses, or a person unto himself, unburdened by the Curse of Power?”

Rizala glanced Erick’s way as she made tea, and then Ascendant Prime was back, saying, “I’m many people?”

A curious thing to say, when said in that way. She didn’t know what she was herself.

Fairy Moon looked to Shadow, to see if she had an answer; this was Shadow’s realm of power, after all.

Shadow said to Ascendant Prime, “You’re a Painted demigod. You have a nascent mantle made from Darkness and you are not actually Ascendant at all. You’re more of a fae made of a whole lot of Life, and your golden coloring comes from the resons you contain and the belief that you should be gold, rather than anything else.” She waved a hand, saying, “But that’s like describing me by the color of my hair or my height; it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just hair color. The Painted God versus Fractal God does mean something though; that’s the difference between a person and an idea. Continue to develop your Dark Mantle and await for Melemizargo to bestow upon you a Spark. Do not seek out more Fractal Power, or else you will truly lose your individuality.”

“… I will keep that in mind,” Ascendant Prime said. And then she set a four-person tea preparation down on the table. “Tea?”

Shadow took a cup, saying, “Smells wonderful. Now let’s talk about how to kill a fae.”

Fairy Moon had objections. She kept them mostly to herself, as she said, “If there were another way to go about this then I would have preferred that, but since Nothanganathor has some sort of Fractal Mark of Life, then you are going to need to learn how to kill fae, even if the Erased One isn’t technically ‘Ascended’.”

Ascendant Prime said, “This is rather adjacent to our desire to speak with you, Erick, for we also imagined that Nothanganathor was somewhat fae, because he has that Sign of Power.” She looked to Shadow and Fairy Moon, adding, “That’s what the Fractal Fairy told us.”

Shadow Moon sat back in her chair, saying, “Let’s talk about that first, actually.”

“Bah,” Fairy Moon said, lightly. “That Fractal came all the way to talk to you and They didn’t pop in to the party we’ve been having? Sometimes I don’t know why I even bother with the Old Fae.”

That comment merited discussion.

“Okay. First:” Erick said, “Is the Fractal Fairy a fae, or the Universe Itself?”

Fairy Moon and Shadow both looked at Erick.

Shadow said to Fairy Moon, “There’s not much difference?”

“Well not now,” Fairy Moon said to Shadow. “But maybe in distant dynasties? More distant than I, by far far afield.” Fairy Moon said to Erick, “They’re the Fractal Universe, Erick. Don’t ask that weird question again.”

Shadow shrugged.

Seemed inconclusive.

Erick moved on.

Erick asked Ascendant Prime, “They really came here? To tell you you’re fae?”

“Among other things. They granted us contact into the Mind Mage collectives out there.” Ascendant Prime said, “They told us that even if Veird perishes, that we would be saved. Apparently, They’re only giving Melemizargo and you and Veird a chance because the Fractal Fairy appreciates what Melemizargo has done to make us; the Mind Mage collective here on Veird. That Fairy is still an absolute bastard, though. We asked for Them to censure Nothanganathor, and They said to do that ourselves, but They didn’t give us any hints as to how to do that, only that we need to truly ‘Become Ourselves’… Which is not something we wish to do, if ‘Becoming Ourselves’ means what we think it means.”

When Ascendant Prime finished, Erick had a long thought.

The others remained silent, sipping their tea and eating little mini-cakes.

Eventually, Erick guessed, “The ‘Becoming Yourselves’ you speak of is turning all the minds you’re connected to back into a single Fractal Mark and a single person. This kills every connected Mind Mage.”

Ascendant Prime sighed a little, for Erick had hit the nail exactly on the head. She asked, “Why would you think that?”

“Because baby fae start off at the bottom. I thought that you started off at the top, as a collective that became self aware through the joining of people into a gestalt. But you’re really an ‘environment’, like a pond, or a desert. You’re growing. You’re a demigod. The final step of growth is actualization, to ‘simply be’, and become a real fae.” Erick said, “And that involves the complete gathering of the environment you were raised within. This gathering kills the environment, because why else would everyone suddenly be here, talking about all this big stuff, all at once, if it wasn’t a big deal of death or other such destruction.”

Shadow said, “And that’s how you kill the Life of a fae, Erick; you kill the environment that they are.”

Erick had a moment.

Ascendant Mind was silent in a whole bunch of thoughts; thick tendrils of power glinted gold around her head as she thought along ten thousand lines of thought, and probably a lot more than that.

Erick looked to Fairy Moon and said, “And that’s why Fairy Moon was left over when the Sundering happened; she became herself inside Elemental Fae, being the only one left while the Bands of Intent were closed off down to 1. That’s her indelible environment. Shadow, however, was simply kicked out of the Darkness because there was nothing to grasp onto, and she simply couldn’t die, but she can’t make it back there, either, because there is nothing there to go back to until it all exists again.” Erick said, “Or maybe Nothanganathor arranged things so it happened like that.”

Shadow said, “Your second guess is likely more correct.”

Erick nodded, then he looked at them all, and said, “To kill Nothanganathor, we have to close off all of him from the outside in, and then change what is at the base into something else. That way, even if he does have a ‘Trick of Eternity’ —which he has to, because of Eldraki— then we can still win. If he has no home base to return to, then he will simply perish.”

Meanwhile, Erick might need to think about actually becoming Simply Himself, and One with Benevolence, so that he wouldn’t die when he was killed, either. That was a thought for another day, though.

Shadow said, “You’re going to need to get Nothanganathor into a place like what you did with Captain Shackle and then rip him apart in that same sort of way.”

Erick said, “That’s going to be difficult.”

Shadow said, “And yet, it will need to be done.”

Ascendant Prime spoke up, saying, “We’re not pulling the trigger on our own Ascension, Erick. Most Mind Mage collectives don’t pull that trigger, because it is so destructive and… and wrong.”

Erick stared into Ascendant Prime’s golden eyes and softly declared, “You’re going to pull that trigger if we look to lose, Ascendant Prime, and then when you’re safe you’re going to recreate all of Veird and everything we’ve lost through Elemental Genesis, and all the other magics that make up this world. That simply is what you’re going to do. Call it Plan Overmind, if you want to give it a name. I already have Escape Plan Omega for all the other people of Veird. You’ll be Backup #2.”

Ascendant Prime instantly said, “40% of people have a [Telepathy] spell or other Fractal Mark portion within them. We would be taking 40% of Veird with us if we had to do that. You would be exempt, but…” She left the rest unsaid.

Everyone else would be consumed into a vast overmind. That overmind would likely rise right through Ascended all the way to Fae and be so far out of touch with its roots that it might never reconnect with the people that had made it. But maybe it would connect. No way to really know.

All of this talk was largely theoretical, but it was based on established precedent.

And if everyone with a [Telepathy] in them got taken, that meant Jane and the rest.

Erick said to Ascendant Prime, “I know what I asked. Any sort of free life is better than the oblivion of Nothanganathor’s Erasure.” He said, “Moving on: If you come up with any ways to negate Nothanganathor’s Sign of Power, I would hear them. I need to do something with my own Fractal Mark to make me immune to Nothanganathor’s non-Malevolence-based powers… I likely need a bigger goal than that for myself, though. ‘Don’t simply aim at the enemy in front of you; aim at all the ones from now until forever’, and all that. I assume that Solomon’s ultimate goal might be to make his Mark into something that gathers Erased or even Sundered people back into people.” Erick said, “Maybe he can start there; trying to bring Sundered people back, and work his way up to Erased people.”

Shadow nodded.

Fairy Moon said, “That would be our starter situation to repair, and then we move mountains from there.”

Ascendant Prime suggested to Erick, “An intact Fractal Mark is already about communication with the self across realities in order to cultivate resons and self-actualization. The fragment of the Mark inside [Telepathy] is mostly about communication with the current realm. Therefore, perhaps you can open your Mark to communication with Benevolence Itself, to move forward and backward through time, to make your own Lightning Path truly useful with regard to finding the best possible future. Maybe share that power with others to make the Benevolent Sky easier to read for all, and especially for yourself; make it overcome all interference, such as that from Nothanganathor, or whoever else might come along after him.”

Erick paused. He thought. And then he smiled. “That’s a great suggestion. I will think on that.”

“Good,” Ascendant Mind said, relaxing a fraction. She had been getting nervous about a lot, and now she wasn’t that worried. “We don’t want to pull the trigger on Plan Overmind, Erick. That is something we do not want to do. Make it so we don’t have to resort to that option.”

Erick softly nodded, saying, “That’s the plan.” Erick turned to Shadow and Fairy Moon. “How would we best go about killing Nothanganthor’s Everything?”

“Shore up the walls of Veird and then expand them until we swallow him right back,” Fairy Moon said, shrugging, like that was all that needed to be said. “Start there.”

Shadow eyed her Father/mom, then said to Erick, “In a more Stone-solid way: Let us start with Rozeta extending the Script out as far as she can make it go, so we don’t have to counter danger happening right on the top sphere of this world. I, for one, would prefer to fight outside of our house. From there...”

The conversation lasted for a few hours.

Rozeta began expanding the Edge of the Script an hour later, while Erick ran another Cleansing Weave to target the thousands upon thousands of kilometers of solid Red just beyond the former Edge of the Script.

Red poured into Veird.

Rozeta had to implement a third Day of Clouds, but that event mainly happened far, far above where people lived, in the absolute black of the sky over the outermost silver layer of Veird, where the Script’s Authority pressed against an invisible Red Ocean.

What most people saw, from the city of the Mind Mages to the lakeside of Candlepoint to the skies of Ar’Kendrithyst, and in the caverns of the Underworld, were tsunamis of thick, white air that flowed across the skies, forming whitewater rivers, ever downward, into the Core.

Golden lightning flickered among those clouds.

Not many people noticed what that lightning did, for they had just heard that Sininindi had helped to make the Day of Clouds possible, and so of course she was here, as well. She and Rozeta and Koyabez and all the gods of the Pantheon were working together with The Wizard to take the power of the Red and smash it into free mana for Veird, consuming Nothanganathor right back.

That Golden Lightning had not been there before.

But people believed in it now, and so that Golden Lightning was here.

Erick saw exactly what Sininindi was doing. Her golden power started above the lands that worshiped her, and then spread like prayers, all the way up the rivers of white clouds, into the spheres above, into the New Edge of the Script, where it struck the Red and empowered Erick’s [Benevolent Cleanse] Weavers. Each empowered Weaver blossomed with white lightning, ending the struggle between the Edge expansion and the Red Ocean firmly on the side of the Script.

Resources poured into Veird.

The Edge of the Script advanced.

- - - -

Erick stepped out under the real sky, past the Silver Surface, onto a prominence of silver metal, to view the new heavens of Veird. All was starlight. The Red had retreated, for now. The new Edge of the Script was a good 20,000 kilometers straight up from Erick’s current location; the current radius of Veird had been doubled in one action. That was all that Rozeta was willing to do right now. They had gained a lot of mana from the second Day of Clouds and so the new Edge was pretty easily made and contained, but the Red Ocean had pulled back, and so this was as far as Rozeta could actually push the Script given current mana constraints. The atmosphere was still only a good 20 kilometers above Erick’s location, though. Beyond that was empty space, kept that way because while the mana to fill that space was easy enough to come by, she’d need to activate some [Duplicate] copy magics to fill that atmosphere, and there was no need to do that right now.

Filling the sky with air would make it impossible to see beyond that much air. Everyone preferred the clear sky. It was all the better to see the enemy. There was no enemy to be seen right now, but the point still stood.

Nothanganathor had retreated, like an army burning fields behind them as they escaped so that those fields could not be used to feed advancing enemies.

A cold wind blew, ruffling Erick’s black glowthread clothes, as he turned his gaze upon the preferred field of battle; Erick also didn’t want to fight on Veird. Fighting up there, though? That was fine.

Stars twinkled like cold, white dots on a field of a blue so dark it was almost black.

The other half of the sky was actually black, with a few world-sized [Terraforming] storms prowling the surface, like crawling stars.

“Fenrir looks okay from this angle,” Erick said.

Rozeta stepped beside him. “The barest glance into a side reality and you’d see it’s full of holes. In some places it’s completely gone.”

Erick asked, “How far into those side realities can you see? Are we protected, yet?”

“The God Pact world is safe and contained, but it is not that difficult to see worlds where some gods have fallen, and from there it gets worse. I cannot see the worlds where I have fallen, but others can; we have talked about it. All of us can only really act here, though. Whatever happens out there doesn’t matter. To me, standing here, those other worlds only exist when I am looking. This is the world that leads the way into the future.” Rozeta said, “And things are looking good.” She added, “It’s hard to put measurements of distance to how far those side realities go before I cannot see. Millions? More? Used to be a lot less. I think we’re safe to implement the [Hasted Shelter].”

Erick nodded, taking in that deep proclamation. “Okay.” Erick asked the air, “Koyabez? I want to turn this entire Silver Surface into an eternal stonewood dungeon forest in your honor. Do you mind?”

Koyabez stepped to Erick’s and Rozeta’s side, looking ragged.

For as long as Erick knew him, the God of Peace and the original god of Veird had always resembled a lithe, pale purple demi man who wore a simple loincloth and nothing else. He had not fared well these last years. The Quiet War had erupted into the Forever War once the armies of Angels and Demons came to Veird, for Koyabez simply could not stop armies of billions fighting on land that was not truly his anymore; the Angelic and Demonic gods had ascended to real power in that action. This war with Nothanganathor was also changing him, bringing out his darker side.

Physically, Koyabez was looking rather anemic. His muscles were wasting and his bones were visible. His hair was limp. One of his small horns was broken, and he had scars on his pale-violet skin.

But his sunken eyes were filled with purpose and his voice was the harsh thing of a beaten man who could take no more.

Koyabez said, “Do it, Wizard of Benevolence, and dedicate the forest to the Eternal Peace of buried enemies that cannot harm us anymore.”

Erick felt a chill that had nothing to do with the frozen wind blowing across the Silver Surface.

“It will be done,” Erick said.

Koyabez breathed a small sigh of relief. He didn’t gain any strength, but that would happen later.

Erick asked, “Got any requests for the Angel/Demon problem?”

Koyabez laughed darkly. He almost said something, but then he paused. He decided to say, “Not right now. When we’re not in danger of being destroyed, take a walk around some places. Those talks in Cerebrum won’t help, but they might get you in contact with the real powers. Try to bring lasting peace however you can… But probably not the peace of the grave.” He added, “They’re the most populous people on my planet right now…” Softly, he said, “It doesn’t feel like home anymore.”

Erick said, “I’ll try to fix that, Koyabez.”

Koyabez smiled a little. And then he stepped away.

It was just Rozeta and Erick, now.

Rozeta softly said to Erick, “Let me help with the Eternal Forest.”

Erick handed her a copy of the [Eternal Stonewood] spell, wrought in Benevolent crystal, saying, “I’ll gladly take your help.”

Rozeta disappeared the spell into Elsewhere and changed the subject, “Have you gotten a chance to try out Elemental Genesis?”

“I have not stopped to do anything but talk to people, Rozeta, and set up some repairs where I can. That’s doing a lot more good for us than me playing around with magic, though I do want to get around to that soon.” He extended his aura and began planting trees. Soon, massive white trees began to grow from nothing. Usually Erick needed some starter seeds to make this spell work, but Erick had imbued this spell with resons, thus making the spell provide its own starter seeds. At the mention of Genesis, though… “Could I do this without spending any resons at all to make starter seeds, if I used Genesis?”

Rozeta gestured to the side, off in the distance. White trees grew fast and in a long line in that direction. “That’s what I’m doing.”

Erick scoffed, “Rozeta! You can just put all the trees in a solid line!”

Rozeta smiled. “Sure I can. Unless you want me to make dirt and rivers instead?”

Erick teased, “What? You can’t do it all at the same time?” He added, “Be sure to make the trees have silver leaves— Ah. Yggdrasil will probably want to put a tree up here, too. That one can be the only green one. All others have to be silver and reflective of peace— and also home to Benevolence slimes and stuff like that.”

Rozeta chuckled as Erick added caveats and direction. And then she said, “Yggdrasil is already growing on the 6 corners of the Silver Surface. He started growing when Koyabez gave permission.”

Yggrasil stepped to the side, smiling, saying, “I’m growing eternal stonewood trees, too. Try to keep up, father.”

Erick turned into a dragon and started rapidly moving, his voice carrying on the half-frozen air, “I can keep up just fine!”

Laughter followed.

Erick added, “And make them hollow and able to have lots of life and slimes and stuff!”

Yggrasil said, “You already said that!”

- - - -

Three days later, amid more crises here and there, while spending all his free time on the Silver Surface to plant more multi-kilometer tall trees, the new Silver Surface was finally done.

As a dragon, Erick flew across a fully populated land of silver-leaved trees, their canopies illusionary and hiding everything below, except where the trees didn’t touch tops. In those silver chasms, light shone through, radiant and warm and in the shape of [Kaleidoscopic Radiance]s down below. Some parts of the new Silver Surface were instead oceans hundreds of kilometers across, dark as black and yet with shining surfaces reflecting silver starlight. Some parts of the new Silver Surface were mountains, but not much; just enough to get the water flowing properly from place to place.

Benevolence slimes were already out and thriving under the waters of [Terraforming] and the storms of Sininindi that crawled across the land. The mana was pouring in. Rozeta had gotten the [Worldwide Cleanse] system back up and running, too, and every instance of Malevolence the world over was instantly struck by an appropriate-sized [Benevolent Cleanse].

For the first time in years, people were able to visit the real surface without danger of being Erased by the Red, for the Red didn’t attack the surface anymore.

Erick flew for a while, a giant black void against the starlit sky to anyone who might be looking up from below, and there were a lot of people down there. A lot of people didn’t like living underground; they were moving up top and making new homes. A lot of people simply wanted to see the stars once, and then go back down to true safety, down below.

Someone had brought a boat up from somewhere and was sailing it on the ocean, under the stars, having a grand time. Erick smiled when he recognized that Slip, the Captain of the Guard of Candlepoint, was the one sailing that boat, along with a few other shadlings from the city. They were drinking Silver Wine, of Koyabez’s holy stock, which Erick had made billions of copies of and which were being handed out to every single party that came to the Silver Surface for whatever reason. The wine was a celebration that they had made it; they were alive, and here, and ready for more. Slip and his friends were just one small group having a good time. They looked happy.

Slip noticed Erick flying overhead. He waved. His party asked him what he was waving at, and he laughed.

Erick waved back, blinking at them in acknowledgment, showing the bright whites of his eyes as he flew overhead.

The people on the boat had various pratfall reactions.

Erick chuckled, glinting the sky with bright white sparks, as he moved on.

He flew for a while, checking things, seeing things. Watching the people. He was headed toward a destination, but he was taking his time getting there.

Eventually, Erick landed on a jut of silver a good 50 kilometers across that lay exposed under the starry sky. It was real silver; not the illusionary silver and grey rock of the original Silver Surface. It deformed a little bit under Erick’s weight, but then he shrunk down and was just a person again. He stepped to the top of the prominence of silver.

To the left of the sky lay the black of Fenrir, with tiny white storms crawling on its surface in orderly lines. It was like a horizon dividing the universe; it was so large.

To the right of the sky lay the sparkling universe. It was much larger.

To be here, though, was to hang above an abyss of black Fenrir, like all of Veird was floating just above a dark ocean, while the sky was glittering, saying hello.

Yggdrasil, Koyabez, Rozeta, Phagar, and Melemizargo, soon joined Erick, though Melemizargo was more off-to-the-side, since he was still a 50 meter tall dragon. Rozeta was looking good in her white pantsuit; she hadn’t changed at all in the tumult of the new world. Phagar looked like Erick, so that was the same.

Koyabez looked better. More solid. Less anemic.

Erick smiled when he saw that. “You’re looking better, Koyabez.”

Koyabed said, “The truce you brokered with the Angels and Demons was helpful.”

“All I did was say a few words,” Erick said, “I’m surprised it had this much of an effect before the actual peace talks will begin.”

“It was still a temporary truce, and people saw that,” Koyabez said. “They also saw all of this new Silver Surface.”

Erick smiled. “It does look good, doesn’t it!”

Sininindi stepped down onto the silver ground. She looked good, too. Her adamantium dress-like sailcloth was less jagged and angry; more solidly broken. It was hard to tell the difference, but to Erick’s eyes her dress had gone from chaotic-on-accident to chaotic-on-purpose. Her gaze felt stronger, too. She said, “Erick does good work.”

“Thank you,” Erick said, “But everyone else was paving the way long before I arrived. Hopefully, after today, we can slow down and truly take care with our forward-plans.”

Yggdrasil said, “The [Hasted Shelter] won’t last forever, but it will last for a few months, at least.”

“That will have to be enough.” Erick looked up to Melemiargo, “I need to cure Kirginatharp’s Dragon Curse after this.”

Rozeta looked unsure, but quietly happy.

Melemizargo said, “It will be done.” And then he looked up to the starry night sky. He intoned, “As endless as Darkness: It is time.”

Rozeta said, “A shield of a careful age.”

Koyabez said, “A place of profound peace.”

Sininindi said, “A protection from unkind storms.”

Yggdrasil said, “A land of well-laid plans.”

Phagar said, “A time made safe from Malevolence.”

Erick finished, “A [Hasted Shelter] of Benevolence.”

The world shifted.

A thin white haze glowed in the sky, far, far away.

And then the haze vanished.

The void of Fenrir was a black horizon to the left that became stable, for Veird no longer turned. No more stars would be exposed or swallowed by those black edges. Veird hung half suspended over an unmoving darkness that was only lit by tracks of planet-sized storms. The sky of stars on the other side of Veird would remain the same for as long as the [Hasted Shelter] held.

And life would continue on Veird, in a much more relaxed manner.

Hopefully.

Erick checked a few things through a few portals. Everything looked good, but he still asked, “Any signs of any other timezones? My weavers aren’t reporting any. The Map Center looks clear.”

Yggdrasil said, “No signs of Malevolence or other magical actions inside Veird’s space that I can detect.”

Phagar said, “Everything seems good for the future. This time this might work.”

Rozeta was smiling wide, saying, “I think it will.”

Sininindi declared, “It will. It has to. I am finally starting to feel like myself again, though still different.”

Koyabez breathed deep, seeming joyful, as he said, “Me too, Sininindi.”

Erick almost said something about getting back to work, but then he felt another twitch in his soul as another startling growth took place in his Dark Mark—

Melemizargo looked at him, a casual look that was more or less what the other gods and Yggdrasil were doing. Sininindi was staring up at the sky, though. She was looking at the storms on Fenrir, and thinking. She kept her thoughts to herself, though.

Erick continued with his interrupted thought, “And now, the reward for doing good work: More work!”

Rozeta chuckled. The others grinned. Rozeta said, “I’ll got all those great new scanning magics to keep a better eye on Veird, and so, that is what I’m doing.”

She stepped away.

Koyabez, Phagar, and Sininindi left as well.

Yggdrasil said, “See you later, father.”

Yggdrasil departed.

Erick was as alone with Melemizargo as anyone could be, here on this silver hill under the open black and star-filled sky.

Melemizargo said, “You’ve grown enough to be a fine god, if you desired, but Yggdrasil is stealing all your divinity.”

“Don’t you go making plans for dying, Melemizargo.” Erick said strongly, “This trap won’t be trapping any of us soon enough.”

Melemizargo’s countenance softened as he gave a small laugh that rumbled the world. “I didn’t mean to replace me. You’re way too small to be my Second.” He stared a little. “You could have been, if Shadow hadn’t arrived.”

“I’m fine with just being me,” Erick said.

Melemizargo grunted in acknowledgment, or in an aborted laugh; it was hard to say. And then the God of Magic turned to shadows and vanished into the background.

Erick stared at the black and starry sky for a moment longer, wondering when the real attack would begin, and what shape it would take. There was too much to do, though; Erick could not be worried about black-swan events or lateral attacks. The walls were defended, and the time was now to make those defenses last. Whatever came next probably wouldn’t be through Malevolence.

Erick departed through a ring of white lightning.

Soon the silver hill was empty. The only mark that anyone had ever been there were dragon claw prints tens of meters wide and a faint golden glow in the air that faded soon enough.

- - - -

Erick Flatt, [60-ish] [Current Year: 1453 (Veird, layer 789), ??? (Margleknot)] [CURRENT REALITY=Layer 0, Margleknot]

Mana split; Soul, Body, Mind: 31%, 30%, 30%

Reson allocation rate: 9%

Soul: 419.46m per day / 4,854.86 per second , [Darkness Level = 28.6x Ascension baseline]

Body: 987

Mind: 1234

Overall Stability: ↑↑ [+4,417.92, -9] Basic upkeep

Mp: 5.8b/∞, ↑ [+1,505, -3] Basic upkeep

Hp: 5.7b/∞, ↑ [+1,456.45, -3] Basic upkeep

Pp: 5.7b/∞, ↑ [+1,456.45, -3] Basic upkeep

Resons: 2.9b [+436.93 = +48.54]