Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 269, 1/2

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 a 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 hehad 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 youto 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 oneof 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 wedo 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 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.

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- - - -

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 of 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 Nindi’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.”