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Gleaming crystal towers dominated the horizon in every distant direction, some of those towers only a dozen kilometers away, others, over 50. If this were any other part of the world and if those towers were of normal size, then Erick wouldn’t have been able to see them past the curvature of Veird. But Erick was in the Brightwater, at least 20 kilometers below the surface of the planet, and yet he was only halfway down to the bottom of this place. The Brightwater District was a massive bowl, where bright white light hovered at the bottom like a perpetual cloud, hiding sight of the civilization that existed on the coasts of the lake at the center of it all.

This was a land where Shades had played at civilization for over 900 years.

But no longer.

Erick stepped through the sky, evading the woman chasing him, not exactly sure how to defuse the situation.

Caizoa, some last name, had been a member of a Wasteland-led party that had completed an artifact run of Ar’Kendrithyst’s Armory. She and her people had won the Black Star; a greater artifact of Koyabez that provided total immunity to everything, as well as allowed the user to find their target across entire worlds. Erick had understood the Black Star was supposed to go to someone else, but Caizoa now wore the Black Star upon her blue armor, like a burnt broach, as she continued to follow Erick through the sky, crying some of the way. It was hard to tell. Her body and blue armor was like billowing sand, that moved as she moved like a demon possessed.

Technically, she was a demon. All incani were demons. Or, at least she would be, when she finally died her final death, and her soul slipped away to the pink moon in the sky known as Hell. Caizoa wouldn’t be dying for a long time, though. Not with that Black Star on her chest.

And that part frustrated Erick. She had that Black Star because she was going to use it to kill the Converter Angel out there, threatening the rest of the incani on Glaquin. Erick wasn’t quite sure what was going on here, and why she was gunning for him, but even if she managed to kill him, then she would die, wouldn’t she? According to what Quilatalap said, the Black Star decides the wearer's fate for each life they take. If she killed Erick, then wouldn’t she be killed in return?

Erick knew he was not some beacon of purity, or innocence, or anything like that. But he highly doubted that as an Avowed Pacifist, already vetted by the same god that empowered the Black Star, that Koyabez would be okay with his Black Star being used to kill him. Especially when Erick had already promised to use his power to hunt down the Converter Angel, himself.

So how had this happened? What sort of chain of events had led to Caizoa rushing at Erick with murder in her eyes and hatred in every swing of her three-meter long blue sword? Maybe Erick would never know. He certainly wasn’t going to find out right now, at least.

Caizoa screamed murder and stepped through the sky, trailing sand as she moved through the wind, coming just close enough to be too close. Erick stepped away, well before she could latch onto him with her tether. She screamed again, more frustrated than angry, this time.

Erick decided: Tania must have something to do with all of this nonsense.

Erick spoke through the light of the sky, his voice easily sounding over the hundreds of meters to Caizoa for he was not willing to get close, “Hey, Caizoa. What’s wrong?”

She screamed, “You killed my friends!”

“I did no such thing.” Erick thought for a moment, then asked, “Did Fallopolis do something?”

Caizoa yelled, “Of course she did! All you humans work together! All of you deserve to die!”

Erick decided there was only one way this was going to go.

He let her get close to him a dozen times. He let her attach her tether, several times. Each time, he moved his sunform self and the tethered part of him into Caizoa’s attack, and let her sever her own tether. Instead of telling her that her attacks were useless, he showed her.

She screamed obscenities. She recounted a dozen atrocities that Erick had never heard of. She spoke of the ‘weak-willed’ nobles who they had to kill to get their hands on the Black Star, to do what needed to be done.

“We had a plan!” Caizoa said, completely unphased by how hard she had been fighting. She probably used some healing spells to keep her Health high, or maybe the Black Star negated the need for such resources, or maybe she had some Dexterity, cutting down on the Health costs of all her physical [Strike]s. “Then those pigfuckers wanted to get in bed with you! All because you promised them a [Gate] Network! But you’re a lying human!” She attacked. Erick let her, and then extricated himself from her attack as easy as a lizard leaving behind a tail. She screamed. She yelled, “As soon as you figure out that [Gate], you’re going to open portals to Celes! And then we’re all going to die!”

Erick had been silent up till then, but he couldn’t let those words stand unchallenged. “I would never do such a thing.”

“LIAR!”

“I would no—”

She yelled at him, drowning out his words as she continued to attack.

So Erick flickered the light next to her, ensuring that his voice could be heard and she could not drown him out, “Melemizargo wants a [Gate] to the moons as a part of his plan to destroy and harm the Script and Veird. Therefore, I would never make a [Gate] to the moons. To any of them.”

She stopped, her feet swirling sand as she hovered. With a crazed smile on her face and hate in her eyes, she happily said, “Then I guess I don’t need to fight you and kill you, do I! Okay! Nice! Why don’t you come closer so I can give you a hug.”

“… Take off the Black Star, first.”

She laughed out hate, and yelled, “I can’t! It’s a part of me until I die or displease it! You’ll just have to trust me that everything is fine, now!”

“I think I preferred when you were actively hunting me.” Erick said, “At least that felt more honest.”

She roared, and advanced, quickly covering the distance between them. Erick let it happen.

She attached her ethereal tether to his sunform and proceeded to swing her blue greatsword. Erick evaded without moving, having grown used to her simple attack style. She would attack and Erick would flow his sunform around her attack. Sometimes, she would attack, and then [Strike] in a different direction, rapidly shifting the arc of her sword, but even that much damage was not much of a threat.

He messed up a few times, and according to his mana sense and the density of his [Personal Ward], Caizoa was knocking off at least 50,000 defensive power with each [Strike]. It was a good thing his [Personal Ward] was worth 280,000 effective-Health, as Jane had called it once. But 50,000 wasn’t too much of a hit, and that only happened four times. Besides, it seemed that for all the Black Star’s power, even Caizoa wasn’t exempt from the Script’s 1 second global cooldown. Most of her attacks were normal sword swings.

Erick disengaged again, having Caizoa [Strike] her own tether to break her from him. She nearly didn’t hit her tether, this time, for she, too, was gaining some measure of acclimation to Erick’s flowing defense. But she did hit her tether, and then she roared again; inarticulate and angry.

Erick got far enough away to spend 17,000 mana to recast his [Personal Ward]. That much mana would come back over 13 minutes, but regenerating 200,000 defense would take about 2.5 hours. Erick did not have time for that. He did, however, have time to talk more to Caizoa, and to help her come to her senses.

… He probably had time.

Erick was up to 10 Ophiel, and he had eyes on a great deal of the Brightwater. Shades were killing Shades, all over, and none of them were currently coming after him, though he knew that would certainly change in the near future.

Over there, by the Palace District, Fallopolis was still fighting Queen. Fallopolis sent black beams thick as towers and black lightning fast as thinking at Queen, while Queen retaliated with kilometer-wide elemental roils and bounced black beams back at Fallopolis with elemental shields. It looked exactly as Erick figured an archmage duel would look. Way too flashy. Way too deadly. The Palace District was already burning down below, while bodies laid where they had fallen, and people tried to escape. Most of them rushed into the crystal towers outside of the Palace District, but it was not truly safe there, either.

A shade made of blood, who Erick now recognized as Crimsonair, the human Shade of Blood, stalked those clear-crystal districts, blood slashing through crystal towers like a storm of blades, searching for the opponent who had fled and destroying much of the land in the process. As a tower fell like some great tree, it fell toward the Brightwater, falling like a slow moving bomb, and then speeding up as it finally fell forward enough to fall free, into the Brightwater. Cascades of glowing water showered into the sky, as a great thwap sounded across the greater district.

Erick did not see where Crimsonair’s target, Cludolphis, the incani Shade of Mending, went. She was the one responsible for repairing the destruction of the larger battlefields. Erick could only wonder at what she was thinking right now, as Shade fought Shade, openly, and with all their might. Only a few crystal towers were falling forward, and into the brightwater. Some were collapsing where they broke, and then further breaking as they fell straight down, smashing and crashing and breaking as they went. Erick watched, momentarily, as he saw three parts of the bowl of the Brightwater District fall right then, in three very separate parts of the area. He held his breath, as some of those broken towers stopped falling.

The broken crystal just hovered there, like the levitating mountains in Truedark.

An explosion rocked the land to the north; the Temple District. Erick watched as a citadel tower of the Temple District began to teeter, as shadowflames licked up its length. And then that sight went out of sight, as Caizoa forced him further west.

Erick found himself on the shores of Truedark Arcanaeum. Just beyond Erick laid a land where mountains floated on nothing and the majority of Brightwater’s people lived. He had no real population numbers, but from his investigations just yesterday...

There were hundreds of thousands of people down there, and with a glance, Erick saw that the fight had progressed to this place, too. Castles made of stone were on fire. Mountains had been turned half-liquid, to fall upon the communities below and bury people under a billion tons of rock. Here and there amid the destruction, were giant balls of stone, literally half the size of the melted mountains.

Erick watched as Farix fought someone else; another incani, actually. Erick took a moment to pin down who the other guy was, and came up blank. No distinguishing magics, so far; many different Shades used stone magics. No distinguishing features, and it wasn’t like Killzone offered pictures of the Clergy.

Farix threw arcing [Force Bombs] that exploded the sky in various colors. The other guy picked up 500 meters of a mudslide, turned it into a giant ball, and hurled it at Farix, all in one smooth, fast motion. Ah. That was a recognizable spell. Erick knew the second guy, now. He was Mallor, the Shade of Granite. According to Killzone, he oversaw the Bottom Wall of Ar’Kendrithyst, down in the deep dark of the Lower Reaches. He was tied with Salvolanche, the human Shade of Stone, for weakest Shade in the city.

Mallor’s ball missed, because Farix dodged that shit as easily as stepping to the side. And then the ball hit the side of a mountain a kilometer away, obliterating several houses as it buried halfway into the dirt.

That was bad.

Erick decided to get involved.

He stepped toward the battlefield, leaving Caizoa far behind. Her fading roar of hatred vanished into the background as Erick stepped to the air a good distance from the fighting Shades. Farix and Mallor both noticed, right away. How could they not? Erick was a giant ball of sunshine right now, after all.

Erick asked, “What’s happening, guys?”

Farix yelled, “Tania has gone fucking insane! She’s killing everyone!”

“She has every right to kill whoever she wants!” Mallor yelled, “Lay down and die, Farix! If you don’t fight with us, you’re against us!”

Farix added, “And this fucker thinks she won’t killhim in the coming purge!”

Erick avoided Caizoa attacking from behind. Farix and Mallor paused their own fight to watch Erick’s and Caizoa’s, as the blue incani sliced through thin air, and Erick stepped back down onto the light of the sky, a good two hundred meters from where he was before. Caizoa screamed in impotence.

Erick thumbed at Caizoa. “Happen to know why she thinks I don’t want to help kill the Converter Angel?”

“Anopix didn’t trust you, and Tania doesn’t either!” Caizoa yelled, “Now hold still and die!”

“Yes.” Mallor sneered and spoke with wild glee, “Yes! Kill the Angel-fucker!”

Mallor acted faster than Caizoa. He magically gripped a good hundred meters of mud below, wrapped it into a ball, and hurtled it at Erick, all in under a second, breaking the sound barrier with the ball of rock as it rocketed his way. Erick dodged, of course—

… That ball wouldn’t hit a home somewhere, would it? … No. Probably not. Erick had been at the wrong angle. The ball continued on into the sky, arcing upward and… Shit. It probably would hit something.

Erick stepped a bit higher into the sky, just in time for the next stone orb to come his way. An Ophiel shot off a [Prismatic Breaker] at the spell, which, of course, did nothing. It was stone moving at a very, very high speed, after all. But Erick didn’t stop there. Another Ophiel attempted to grab the passing boulder with [Stoneshape], and that, surprisingly, also still did nothing. Must have been Domain-empowered? That was the most obvious answer.

Erick stepped closer to Mallor, evading another orb, as Mallor ripped rocks from the ground and flattened them into rough blades. With a twist of his hands, Mallor sent the bladesspinning around him like he was the center of the world’s largest blender—

As an Ophiel stepped into the blades, behind the Shade, sacrificing itself to cast a [Luminous Trap], while a second Ophiel, far out of the range of the blades, cast his entire self into the Variable cost to summon an ethereal blood ooze. That red goo gleefully slithered through the sky, slipping through spinning stone with the barest of resistance to strike Mallor right as the black orb sucked him into its dark depths.

Erick summoned another Ophiel, in preparation for something else to happen.

A black orb locked around Mallor. The blood ooze theoretically locked down his spell work. The swirling spikes fell to the ground. The mud below turned solid; maybe Mallor had been actively controlling it? Erick didn’t test his trap too thoroughly. He just stepped to the side, keeping well out of Mallor’s range but repositioning at the same time. As a second of no response turned into five, Erick noticed that while no part of Mallor stuck out of the black orb, the blood ooze did. The pokey parts of the red ooze moved around the void-black globe like suddenly raised and lowered islands of red gelatin. Mallor must have been struggling inside.

Erick was struggling outside, too, but only with the fact that his plan had actually worked. He still didn’t believe that [Luminous Trap] actually did what it looked to be doing. It was too useful against the Shades. But then again, maybe [Luminous Trap] was just the Shade-equivalent of a vampire’s weakness to sunlight?

… Did vampires exist on Veird?

Ah. Not now.

Erick let [Hunter’s Instincts] carry him right back to the moment; right back to the fight.

Because Caizoa looked to fuck up Erick’s [Luminous Trap] by sand-stepping right at the black void, with her sword raised, and then cleaving down with shadows licking the blade’s edge. A [Dispelling Strike]? Perhaps.

Farix, not one to miss an opportunity, had been preparing his own strike ever since Mallor was locked to the black orb. The Shade’s was a bit more magical than the warrior’s. About fifty coruscating [Force Bomb]s launched from Farix, to impact the black orb, right as Caizoa slashed through that void with her sword. Mallor’s rebirth into the world was cut short, as that part of the world briefly turned to burning reality.

Caizoa came out of that event completely unharmed.

Mallor did not.

As the pulsing, burning bombs finally dissipated, a burned corpse fell through the sky, further igniting as it did, turning to ash and dust, well before it could reach the solid land below. Mallor had died. Erick got a Participation Box for the kill. 70%. It wasn’t enough for a level. But...

He… He didn’t know how he felt about that.

In the process of thinking about Mallor’s death, Erick had accidentally let Caizoa get close enough to reapply her tether. Erick dodged a little, not making much of an effort to actually escape the attack and yet still doing so, as he wondered, again, how he felt about unintentionally killing a Shade. Caizoa roared, again. And as a matter of fact, now that her roar happened again, he noticed that it had been a rather constant roar, every minute and a half or thereabouts.

He asked, “Is that a [Roar] buff, or something you keep applying to yourself? I can’t really see anything that you do under all that divine fire.”

She did not answer, except to stare, as she attempted to cut him down. Again.

Farix noticed, and from a safe distance, asked, “What’s up with little miss Black Star and you?”

Erick moved himself out of the way of another [Strike]. “I have no idea.”

Caizoa attacked a dozen times before she could release another proper [Strike], which Erick also evaded. He was getting better at this, and Caizoa was only marginally improving. Her [Strike], characterized by the rapid directional shift of her sword, was her only truly dangerous attack, and that was on a 20 second timer.

Farix asked, “She does know that you’re obligated to help with the Converter Angel, right?”

Erick said, “I’m thinking that Tania wiped her memory selectively, or something. Maybe Quilatalap did it, for whatever reason. Obligations, perhaps? He did mention that memory wipes were necessary when giving out items like the Black Star.”

“No one touched my memory!” Caizoa roared, “You’re just the enemy in front of me and none of us are getting out of here for another six days!”

Farix crossed his arms, and said, “You could theoretically kill Tania and break the Feast Barrier, little girl, if you could actually manage to hit true occasionally.” He lifted one hand up, as if wondering what the fuck Caizoa was even thinking, as he said, “But then again, what the fuck are you even thinking, attacking any one of us at your level of mediocrity?”

“EVERYONE ELSE IS DEAD.”

Farix laughed. “So? Quilatalap can resurrect them.”

Caizoa swung her sword, empowering the 3 meter blue blade with a [Strike]. Erick flexed his sunform, and had her hit her own tether, releasing him from her grasp. He stepped away, getting well out of her range. Maybe, in a normal situation with normal 1-second global cooldowns, Caizoa would have been more of a threat. She could have almost instantly reapplied her tether. But in here, where it was 20 seconds between Skill use, Caizoa was rather mediocre.

Caizoa stared bloody murder at Erick, as she stood there, in the sky, her extremities and blue armor swirling away like sand off of a sandcastle, only to come back to her body to replace what had been blown away. Erick studied those sandy movements for a moment. She must have been running a [Stone Body] and [Air Body] at the same time. Erick had heard of Jane’s experience with a guy that ran [Air Body] and [Water Body] at the same time; that guy had looked like a seafoam wave in the shape of a person. Stone and Air, though, combined to make Sand, so that was normal enough.

Erick wondered, if he got [Greater Shadowalk], could he make himself an [Illusionwalk]? He probably could. But… Eh. He liked his sunform. If he went for an illusion form, then he’d need to make a [Domain of Illusion], too.

It was something to consider for the future, anyway.

Caizoa faced Farix. “Help me kill him and I won’t kill you.”

Erick watched as Farix burst into laughter.

“Ha!” The Shade shook his head at Caizoa, saying, “No wonder Tania gave you that Black Star. You’re an idiot.”

“And you’re a disgrace to incani and demons everywhere.”

Farix blinked a few times, then mumbled, “Like every stupid kid on their first day at Truedark—” He spoke louder, asking, “When you look at Erick, what do you see?”

“A human that will betray his oath to kill the Converter Angel the first chance he gets!” Caizoa said, “And it won’t be because he won’t try. He’ll fail because he will get too close to the Angel and fall under their sway, like all the others who had done so! Therefore, he must die before he gets too close to the bastard and becomes a threat unlike any other.”

Erick paused in thought. But only for a second. He said, “You have to get near them, right? That won’t happen.”

Caizoa glared at him from a hundred meters away. “You are an arrogant asshole. You would try to talk to the Angels, and they would turn you, and then use you against the rest of us.” She hefted her sword. “If you truly wish to assist our cause, please stand still, so that I can end a threat before it becomes one.”

“Ah. Interesting.” Farix said, “You have thought this out, if only a little.”

Caizoa’s glare shifted toward Farix, who was also a hundred meters from her. The three of them formed a sort-of triangle in the air, at the moment. She said, “You should die, too. But as a respect toward my late Uncle Anopix, I will let you live, if you help me kill Erick.”

“I repeat: you have only thought this out a little. You don’t actually know what the fuck you’re talking about, at all, and that includes your assessment of your ability to hurt me.” Farix waved. “Bye!”

He vanished in a flashing, black step.

Caizoa screamed at the sky, “Coward!”

Erick interrupted her, “Is there a way to protect against the Converter Angel’s conversion?”

Erick had been told and knew from a few different sources how Breach Demons worked. Once summoned to Veird through a ritual [Gate], a Breach Demon would go on a rampage, killing people with a gesture, and simultaneously replacing their souls with those of demons, or rather, the souls of dead incani, which would then begin to transform the body into a stronger vessel for their needs. Breach Demons were the stuff of nightmares released, and always summoned where a lot of humans had died. The summoning of a Breach Demon was a historical event that almost always happened once they were started. Erick’s prevention of the last Breach Demon was a historical first.

Converter Angels, however, were spies that dealt in subterfuge and the toppling of kingdoms. Erick had heard that a Converter Angel was responsible for the fall of the Lori Dukedom and the chain of events that caused the Wasteland Kingdoms. Where Breach Demons breached the body and reinstated a demon inside, a Converter Angels did exactly as their name implied. They transformed the soul of a target into one of the Heavenly Host of Celes, letting them keep everything about themselves, but firmly converting them to the side of the Angels. The only saving grace here, was that Converter Angels did not convert everyone in sight. They supposedly had limits, though Erick suspected those ‘limits’ were more practical than actual. The demons liked to rampage, but the angels liked to topple kingdoms with as little expenditure as possible.

Erick was just going to avoid the whole problem of subjecting himself to the angel by killing the creature from a good 12,000 kilometers away, or whatever.

Caizoa glared at Erick. “There is a way to protect against falling to the Angel. Let me kill you.”

“Ah. Well.” Erick sighed. “That’s not going to work for me.” He stepped far, far away, leaving the blue woman behind as he moved on. She would catch up soon enough. But whatever. Erick had some concerns at the moment, and Caizoa didn’t rank amongst any of them.

- - - -

Erick had three primary concerns.

The first, was that he needed to know why Fallopolis had been fighting Queen. He couldn’t quite tell why, but he had the distinct impression that Fallopolis would be better served elsewhere, wouldn’t she? Like, on the side of her fellow human Shades, fighting the incani, as they worked for Tania? Wasn’t she better served fighting Tania? Wasn’t that what Fallopolis had been planning on? Fallopolis had never told him her plans, but Erick got the distinct impression that her plans involved rounding up some idiots to fight with her, and then killing them all after she had won.

Erick’s second concern was more nebulous, but linked to the first. Where was Tania, anyway?

Erick sent a sunform Ophiel high, high into the sky, way above the Brightwater, where he could see out along the tops of the crystal spires all around, and into the red-purple crystals out in the normal part of Ar’Kendrithyst. With a cast, Ophiel launched a [Cascade Imaging] into the illusion-filled sky, and mapped the dead city, searching for Tania. Maybe something would show up? Maybe not.

Erick’s third, and largest concern, was for all the people caught in the crossfire. He wondered, perhaps, if he would have focused more on the people if he weren’t running [Hunter’s Instincts]. But he was running [Hunter’s Instincts], and a large part of him kept thinking of how resilient the people of this land must be, if they could live under the rules of the Shades. Most of them were probably fine, and hiding out in their own hiding space—

A telepathic connection tickled at his mind. It felt like it was from Fallopolis, but he was aware of how someone skilled enough could fool a telepathic connection. It had happened to him before, back when he was going up against the Daydropper Queen. So Erick ignored the call.

Thirty seconds later, while Erick was still deciding where to go next, the Ophiel beside his map, nearly 25 kilometers straight up, sent a concerned feeling. Erick glanced through that Ophiel, and saw Fallopolis standing in the air beside his white map, looking down at the blue dot that was near the Spire. Ah? What was she doing there?

It was nice to see that the map was able to find Tania, though.

But… Hmm.

Fallopolis smirked at Ophiel, and Erick felt another telepathic ping from the Shade in front of Ophiel, to Erick. He still didn’t pick up, but he did change his direction to straight up. Ten steps later, Erick stood a hundred meters from his map, and from ‘Fallopolis’. He kept a straight face, and gave away nothing, but this was not the woman who had walked beside him all the way to the Palace District. And now that he was closer, with more than a few Ophiel running more than a few different Sights all around, he could see the frayed edges of the lie in front of him.

‘Fallopolis’ noticed the distance between Erick and her, and scoffed, saying, “What’s all this! You don’t want to be allies anymore? A girl could get a bad idea in her head, Erick.”

Erick would have frowned, but he did not. Apparently, it was time for illusions.

Admittedly, they were good illusions. If he were on his own, or in some sort of compromised position, perhaps he would see this person as ‘Fallopolis’. But he was not on his own, and he was very much not compromised at all.

So he said, “You’re not Fallopolis.” And then he listed some problems, but not all of them, “Your aura is wrong. Your soul doesn’t fit your body. Your smell is wrong.” That last one came from [Hunter’s Instincts] activated on the nearest Ophiel. Erick returned her question, “So what’s all this?”

Erick felt something brush through the air not a meter from his sunform, touching upon his glowing self like a gasoline stain on water. The spell managed to occlude some of his glowing globe, before he peeled himself out of whatever the hell that was, while an Ophiel on his shoulder shot a 10,000 point [Grand Dispel] at it, and another shot a [Prismatic Breaker]. Peeling the spell away from his main self did more to rid him of the near-invisible magic than either [Grand Dispel] or [Prismatic Breaker].

At the same time he felt the first inklings of magic arrayed against him, he had the Ophiel near ‘Fallopolis’ throw a black void upon her body.

Erick had managed to avoid Not-Fallopolis’s attack. Not-Fallopolis did not manage to evade Erick’s counter.

And then something struck the black bubble from outside the encounter; some sort of hidden attacker, or something. The black bubble popped, releasing a frowning orcol woman who wore rags and yet still managed to look pretty. The only thing that truly stood out about her was that her skin was the greyest Erick had ever seen on an orcol. She was practically the color of ash.

She narrowed her grey, normal-ish eyes at Erick.

Erick kept his eyes out for the person outside of the encounter as he instantly put up a few more defenses, most notably, he had a lightform Ophiel surround and hold onto the exterior of his sunform, covering his back and most of his front like the shell of a turtle, as that Ophiel then turned on [Pure Reflection Ward]. Erick’s rapid defense might not stand up to Domain-infused magic, but it was better than nothing.

The grey orcol sighed. “It would have been easier if you’d have let me win.”

She stepped away.

Three seconds later, when nothing else happened, Erick found himself asking, “Who the fuck was that?”

Whatever had happened, the woman was gone.

Erick stepped backward in time with his mana sense, just a bit, quickly rifling through the last few moments over and over again, three times. When he came back to himself, thirty seconds had passed, and he had recognized something weird. Whoever that was, had very much been sucked into his [Luminous Trap]. But she had also gotten out, due to a [Dispel] that came out of nowhere, about twenty meters away. In that space, Erick found a mana construct that had detonated itself in order to [Dispel] the [Luminous Trap].

So. Not a secondary person. The orcol woman was just prepared in case Erick trapped her.

That made sense. Erick had displayed his trapping spell twice; once days before, too. Someone would have had to have made a counter by now, and this grey orcol had. Pretty simple counter, too.

Erick would need to add a reflective Ophiel around the bubble, along with a counterspelling blood ooze, and maybe that would be enough.

But who was that lady! Erick had never heard of a ‘grey orcol’ from Killzone. The woman had normal eyes, too, so either she was a Shade hiding her white eyes, or someone else getting involved for the fun of it, or some shit.

And then there was the fact that she had noticed the [Cascade Imaging] almost instantly, and then had a plan set up to take advantage of Erick’s willingness to parlay. Shades were always watching, so that sort of made sense.

Whatever. This was a war-zone. No time to pursue all of that right now, and Erick had never heard of a grey orcol shade who wore rags and dealt in illusions. Considering that there was an illusion, who he had just met could be almost anyone.

So. Moving right along.

Erick had an Ophiel reset the [Cascade Imaging] to search for [Shades].

He waited a full minute before giving up on that pursuit. ‘Shades’ didn’t show in the search. He switched the search to ‘Fallopolis’, and found the woman. She was now in the Spire, near where Erick had searched for and found Tania. Huh.

The implications were… Something.

A possible-Shade had found his map and used that map to try to get to him by impersonating Fallopolis, while Fallopolis had simultaneously found and used the map to find Tania? Or. No. Fallopolis had been fighting Tania this whole time.

Then who the fuck was fighting Queen back there?!

Erick did a quick check back in time, back to when he set up the map, itself. He came back to himself, right away. In the near past, this not-Fallopolis had shown up almost instantly, after Erick had put up the map. And she had remained. She was still there, and had not done much, when Erick had walked into the scene. Good illusions? Or something else? Because right now, Fallopolis’s blue marker was over in the Spire—

Erick switched the imaging to ‘Tania’.

A blue dot appeared in the Spire, where Fallopolis was.

Okay. So. There was something fucky going on over here.

Erick glanced to the Spire.

He was not walking into that shit show. He needed a plan to survive and thrive in this warzone, and he needed it now.

… There were still 6 days till the Feast ended, and the Feast Barrier went down. Killzone had said that the Feast Barrier always vanished with the first rays of the new day. So, theoretically, Erick had to survive 6 days.

Maybe.

Maybe the Feast Barrier only dropped when Tania dropped it. She had cast it, after all. She could still go in and out whenever she wanted, too. But Tania wanted to kill all the humans and have incani-only Shades. That would only happen if she made it happen. That was why she and Fallopolis were fighting right now, wasn’t it?

So. Best case scenario: Erick needed to survive for 6 more days.

To do that, he could either hide and wait for Tania to kill him, because he was human, and that seemed to be her desires right now, if Caizoa’s tirade was any indication of Tania’s plans.

Or he could get some powerful, temporary allies.

Erick had absolutely no illusions that his ‘Untouchable’ status was good for anything, anymore. And hiding would not work. Only fighting would see him through this night. Therefore, allies were needed. At this point, Erick recognized that his thoughts were circular, and he was not in his right, calm mind, at all. He shook his head, and focused.

Fallopolis was already fighting Tania, so she was not an ally at the moment. Maybe later, though.

Quilatalap was… Somewhere.

Erick switched the map to search for Quilatalap, and found nothing. For a moment, Erick worried.

… The 3000 year-old archlich was probably fine, but if Erick couldn’t easily find him, then he was probably not going to be found. So. Erick decided to pursue the Shades he had seen as the lesser evils, wherever they might be.

Erick switched the Imaging to another, and a blue marker appeared over in the Temple District—

A roar happened right behind Erick. Caizoa had showed up again. Erick sighed, then went to find the only possible Shade worth saving in all this mess. Killzone had said that Priestess was the only Shade who never did wrong by anyone, after all.

- - - -

Erick had briefly seen the Temple District before now, when he scouted the place with Ophiel. Where Truedark Arcanaeum was a green land of floating mountains, tall castles, and many, many residential areas, the Temple District was almost the same. The only true difference was the height of the towers, the building materials, and the ornamentation. All of that was of a much larger scope.

Soaring towers of crystal and gold, of darkness, light, and flowing water, provided the backdrop for daily worship of the Dark Dragon, Melemizargo. Statues of Shades occupied places of prominence. Statues of Melemizargo occupied places of endless devotion. Choirs sang in constant song, with rotating rosters so that the harmony would never falter. Scribes wrote the words of their god onto paper, to be distributed out into the rest of the world.

And at the moment, all of that was on fire.

Over there, green fire. Over there, black fire. Blue fires, too. Red and yellow fires glowed here and there, but they were small things, and most likely the result of wooden structures burning as naturally as they could, when everything else in a 10 kilometer radius circle was burning with some other, stranger flame. Black smoke billowed into the sky, while heat stress cracked crystal towers and sent monuments to the Dark Dragon tumbling into the burning churches and temples and shrines below.

Erick counted at least five Shades in the sky or nearby the temples, adding to the flames, or fighting each other. There was Hollowsaur with his shadowflames, burning a statue of Melemizargo in the ruined temples of a cathedral. Some harpy Shade seemed to make it her job to topple the tallest towers. Her flames were blue. Others, non-Shades, ran away from the destruction, but fleeing was hard when everything was on fire. Erick’s desire to find Priestess multiplied, as five people were consumed by the flames in front of him. More parishioners attempted to swim out into the Brightwater, only to fall to the snapping jaws of glowing monsters under the waves. A river ran through the Temple District, and though it had been a shallow, wide thing with many picturesque waterfalls and wide pools that could have easily defended some people from the raging inferno, there was a Shade in those waters, too, floating above the calm stream, setting the water to burning with radiant yellow flames.

Back up in the sky, where an Ophiel waited by Erick’s map, Erick made sure his target had not moved yet. And she hadn’t, according to the blue dot. Priestess’s position was not five kilometers from Erick’s position, though while Erick was in the sky, Priestess’s location was a problem.

According to what he was seeing, Priestess was at the center of a massive conflagration of black flames, flanked by burning spires and dwarfing them in its height. She was at the center of the fires. Dead center. Ah. That couldn’t be good.

Erick did not want to risk himself. He sent a sunform Ophiel forward. The [Familiar]’s bright sphere of light carved through flames as he stepped through the black conflagration. Erick expected to find Priestess tied to a stone pole and burning, or something. Instead, Ophiel burst into a ceremony absolutely full of people. For a moment, Erick was stunned. Priestess was holding Mass, or whatever she called it, in the middle of a world of black fire.

In a small, public amphitheater, Priestess floated, surrounded by onlookers, while flames raged beyond the area, threatening to engulf everyone inside, but Priestess kept those flames out, magic pulsing from her body. Her body was much the same as it always was. Priestess was still a stretched-out skeleton, with black ribbons wrapped around her pelvis and chest and arms; ribbons that gave the impression of flesh that was not there in reality. The white orb inside her chest was cracked; the black line in that central part of her spreading by the seconds. Her bones were already flaking away, like ash. Yet she was not ready to go. She pulled magic into her bones, solidifying them while they continued to disintegrate, warring with inevitability.

The parishioners looked to have come from all walks of life. Some wore expensive robes. Others looked like they had just gotten out of bed. Women, children, men, of all races, all gathered close to Priestess, listening to her words, but they mostly watched the black flames. The flames were already eating away at the edge of their secured space. Some people on those edges caught fire as Ophiel burst into the ceremony; into their safety. Ophiel noticed what he had done, and so did Erick.

Erick tried his best shot: a 10,000 mana [Grand Dispel], cast from his own hand, through Ophiel, at the flames. With all his own multipliers, that was almost like a half-million mana Chaining-[Dispel]. He hoped it would be enough.

The blot of shadows struck the black flames, and spread, consuming fires as it passed, like a scythe through a harvest, turning deadly spellwork into naught but a memory. Erick breathed deep, over five kilometers away, as he watched the conflagration around Priestess and her flock turn into nothing. In a flashing second, the amphitheater was cleared of all danger.

It was only after he was done with the black fire that he heard Priestess’s communion, and saw that the edge of his [Grand Dispel] had swept outward, and then inward, back to its caster. Back to Priestess.

“We offer up our lives to you, our Dark God! May we be forever held in your embrace—”

The [Grand Dispel] reached the Shade. She flinched. Her white core cracked a little bit more.

Erick could not contain his anger. He yelled through Ophiel, “What the FUCK?! You’re burning your people to death?!”

Some of those people saw the writing on the wall and ran away as fast as they could. Not many got very far. Parishioners in priest outfits held spells of restraint upon the people who looked like they just got out of bed. Priestess was burning these people to death, along with herself, as her priests acted as accomplices.

Priestess did not deny it. She reveled in it, as she happily called out, “Erick! You should join us! Melemizargo surely has plans for you, too! We just all need to die to escape this current crisis! The faster the better!”

So she was insane.

Maybe he could work with that?

Erick rapidly thought about what was needed.

He turned his voice angry, which was not very hard, and forcefully said, “There will be no mass-suicide today, Priestess. I need you to help me figure out which Shades should live through this, and which should die. I demand this of you, here and now. So pull yourself together and HELP. ME.”

She chuckled; a friendly sound. “But Erick. The solution to our problems is already here. Just die with me, and it will all be better!” She was not insane in the usual way. Melemizargo had already brought her back several times, if her own words and those of Killzone could be trusted. But as the starlight in her eye sockets swirled, and she glimpsed people struggling against their captors, her voice took on a harsher tone, as she spoke to the captives and her priests, “Everything will be okay when we pass beyond the flames. It doesn’t hurt that much.” Priestess turned back toward Erick. “Come with us, Erick.”

He played along, “I’m not prepared for what comes after the resurrections. What sort of world are we going to fall into? And besides that, how am I supposed to make this Mana Generation Wizard Core without knowing more about all of that, first? I need you to tell me all about that. I need you alive!”

“No, you do not! Worldly affairs are meaningless in the face of Melemizargo’s displeasure!” Priestess spread her arms wide. Black flames licked across the sky, as she declared, “Die and be reborn with the rest of us!”

Erick came back to himself, recoiling from a destroyed Ophiel, just in time to see black flames roll across the Temple District like a Red Dot explosion. He was already five kilometers away, but he stepped backward, fast. He was barely fast enough.

Black flames washed across the Temple District like the unfurling of the world’s largest lotus. Petals of flickering flame blossomed outward, continuously, blasting away towers with their shockwaves, sundering crystal, evaporating the river, extinguishing all other colored fires and pushing back the Brightwater with concussive force.

Erick’s sunform flickered as the very air bent and broke, but he was far enough away to avoid the death and destruction which claimed everyone else. Fire passed him, and he withstood its destruction. And then the outward force turned inward. Erick watched as the black lotus turned into a mushroom, and rose in the sky, blackening the world as it passed, carving a hole into the ever-present light that rested like a false-sky across the whole Brightwater District.

The few other fires, the reds and greens and blues, were sucked into the sky as the black cloud lifted higher and higher, and winds whipped across the Brightwater and into the dark cloud. The lake followed the sudden inward tempest and broke its banks, flowing into the former Temple District. Massive plumes of steam lifted from the molten land, as the glass near the waters cracked and broke under temperature fractures.

A minute passed from explosion to black mushroom, before Priestess’s spell vanished completely into the sky above. Another minute passed, while Erick processed what he had seen, while he calculated the loss of life, and the aftermath. He looked upon the land, and felt despair, like a tiny knocking on his soul, loud enough to drown out the power of [Hunter’s Instincts]. The land of the Temple District looked like the outsides of Spur looked, after the Red Dot. All he saw before him was a land of glass that had been whipped up to stiff peaks, and burned, like the meringue coating of a freshly baked lemon pie.

Belatedly, he recalled seeing Caizoa’s sandform self flying through the air. She was not dead, at all. But apparently, explosions this large could overcome some of the Black Star’s invulnerability, and move the user with the power of excessive physical force. Erick filed that thought away for now. He filed away many of his weird, current thoughts, and tried to stay on track.

But what sort of track was he on? He had not exactly lied to Priestess. He had hoped to enlist her into finding those Shades worth saving. Maybe? Is that why he was here?

… Why was he here?

It was for allies, yes, but also…

Erick looked down upon absolute destruction, and felt his heart move back into the correct position. He could find temporary allies, yes, but if there were Shades that could be saved, then that would be good for a transition period, wouldn’t it?

He breathed out, and felt a minor panic, as he wondered just how insane the Clergy actually was. They had all seemed like perfectly normal Evil People until now…

But they were burning the Temple District specifically, weren’t they. They had lost their faith, when the secret got out that Melemizargo hated them all. That Melemizargo’s displeasure was why Tania had been Judging them and killing them these past days.

And that fact broke more than a few of them. Priestess had been broken, too. It was hard for Erick to imagine a sane person doing what she had done, even if it was true that she had come back to life multiple times because of Melemizargo’s desire. Erick doubted that all of those parishioners would be coming back. Did Priestess not see that?

Did Erick have that right? Priestess had been the off and on priestess for Melemizargo’s Clergy since before the Sundering. She was only a skeleton because she was an alvani, the child of an angel and a human, and alvani were impossible under the Script, ever since the Old Demons had killed all the Halves and made the incani.

… Erick put away those old thoughts. They were getting him nowhere.

The Temple District was gone. The fires that burned had been extinguished, either when the black bomb destroyed the place, or when the land had melted into liquid and then cooled into glass. Here and there, parts of the place had survived; the lee behind a particularly large temple, or where a boxy, sturdy building had managed to be buried by the blast, instead of being blown apart like so many others.

With a cold detachment, Erick thought about calling in some rains to cool the place down. But if he put water down there, it would steam up, and maybe kill anyone who had managed to find a place to hide out?

… No. That made no sense. Anyone down there who survived…

No one survived that. And if they did, they were probably under the glass, and praying that it would cool down faster.

Unsure what he was even doing anymore, but knowing that he really, really wanted to make it rain because he liked the rain and he felt like doing something that he wanted to do, Erick had an Ophiel cast a [Control Weather] into the sky, and hoped that it would be enough for whoever still lived; if anyone. It would take a while for the rains to fall, though. The Temple District was a good 30 kilometers below the surface of Veird.

The blackened sky turned to cold wind.

Five minutes passed before the rain reached all the way down to the glassed land, turning black as it fell through the sky above. Another four minutes passed before the rain managed to remain liquid long enough to actually touch the black glass. It didn’t remain liquid for long. Steam filled the sky. More minutes passed. Half a kilometer away, Caizoa stood in the air, her eyes affixed to the land ahead, tears rolling down her face. Erick could only guess at what she was seeing, and what she was thinking.

The Brightwater glowed down below, but Erick’s rains washed black ash into those waters, forming dark tendrils of ink that seemed to poison the light, dimming the radiance, turning the world a little bit colder. The glass of the Temple District crackled with a sound not unlike breaking glaciers.

With a thought, Erick moved on. He needed to find allies, right?

… Or he could help people survive this current crisis.

There were two ways to go about this. He could hunt Shades, and prevent more Red Dots from happening, or, he could… try to rescue people? Doing the first would automatically do the second.

… Whatever the case, he could try a different method to search for Shades. He considered the core at the center of each of them. Fallopolis had one. Priestess had one. Maybe they all did. What did it look like again? Oh yeah. A 10-15 cm wide white sphere, right where the stomach would be. Could he just search for something of that general size?

He tried it.

He got over three hundred positive results.

He almost sat down in the air and had a cry. 300 Shades? Fuck!

And then he noticed that only some of the blue dots moved around. The others were stationary. Maybe he had simply managed to get multiple results with his single search? It seemed likely. Or, at least, it seemed possible.

With [Hunter’s Instincts] allowing him to work through the pain in his heart, Erick decided to check the two orbs that remained in the Temple District, first.

The first orb was locked under a wave of black glass and inside of a building. With a wave of [Stoneshape], that glass came away like so much churning mud, to fall out and over into the pouring rain. The uncovered orb was nothing special. It was locked to the claws of a sculpture of Melemizargo, in what had likely been some sort of small worship center. It was almost like a grand-rad, in that it was solidified magic and a knot in the manasphere denser than most grand-rads, both sucking in and expelling mana in some sort of natural flow. It was definitely similar to the sphere at the center of Priestess, though Erick had never seen this kind of ‘flow’ among Priestess’s body, or the body of any other Shades. Maybe this was a dead Shade-core? Or something?

Erick left it behind, and stepped over to the other blue dot on the map.

He found what remained of Hollowsaur. Or, at least, what might have been Hollowsaur.

A plume of black glass rose from the surroundings, like a singular wave crested out of nowhere. Most of the interior was clouded, but Erick spied the searched-for orb inside of a charred skeleton. The bones were of orcol size, with a skull that had large lower fangs, exactly like an orcol. The orb was whole. The skeleton’s arms were crossed over the chest, protectively. Slight magics radiated from the white sphere, giving a gentle glow to the surrounding glass. This… was probably Hollowsaur.

… Was he still alive?

If Erick wasn’t in his sunform, he was sure he would have felt his heart sink. Hollowsaur’s orb still glowed. He might still be alive. So, the next question naturally flowed: Could Erick murder this man? Was that the right thing to do? To murder in cold blood, when presented the head of an enemy-of-the-world? Erick gazed upon the trapped skeleton with several sights. He felt himself go cold, even though the glass all around him was still billowing steam into the air, as he recognized a truth.

Erick whispered, “Holy shit you’re still alive.”

Hollowsaur responded with a pulse of light from his core that left him dimmer than before. Erick had an Ophiel set a [Weather Ward] up above to keep the black rain off of them.

“Severely weakened.” Erick said, “But alive.”

Erick watched as Hollowsaur’s orb ebbed brighter, radiating some sort of anger, but then it cracked, dimmed, and darkened; A candle flickering its last breath.

Panic swelled.

From the deepest, most true part of himself, Erick knew he could not kill this man. Not like this. Never like this. And yet, he couldn’t let the Shade die. And yet, he also couldn’t let him live.

Something else swelled in the mana and in the shadows and light all around. Power built, and demanded to be used. Like a flickering light on a dark street at night, Erick saw a way forward where he wouldn’t have to kill. After all, Veird was a world of magic.

And the solutions of ‘kill or regret’ was a silly binary, when you truly thought it over. Erick decided a few crucial things about himself in that moment. He decided to make his first Blessing.

Or maybe it was a Curse? Hard to say. ‘Both’ was surely an option, too.

Erick decided he wouldn't let his curse be a noose around Hollowsaur’s neck. It had to be something else. Something more honorable than that. Something that included way too much soul magic that Erick had read about, but not yet truly tested.

But that was okay, too.

Erick turned to flesh and bone, and breathed in the harsh air all around him, feeling the mana as it flowed through his body, and around his soul. It felt like an old friend visiting for the holiday.

“Hollowsaur.” Erick’s voice rumbled, “Hear me. This is a binding. You will accept it, or you will die.”

Hollowsaur’s corpse flickered, angrily, and then reluctantly. His orb glowed, for perhaps the last time. And then his defenses lowered, completely. Erick watched as the Shade’s soul unfurled, the Shroud breaking, exposing the interior, opening like a flower. And then Hollowsaur’s Shroud dropped, completely.

Erick saw Hollowsaur, in that moment, as he spoke in cadence, “A little help from me to thee, a blessing for you now to see, assistants in the light who plea, for worlds where Shades are loved to be. Amends you’ll make eventually, a life well lived, a life lived free, but till then there is to be, a leash round you, without a key. Now tell me true, are we to see, the end of woe; rebirth of thee?”

Something swirled in Erick’s own aura, like the start of a tsunami in the middle of the ocean, right after a quake had been set off far, far below. Without buildup, that wave crashed through Erick. A pulse from his soul erupted outward, blinding in its intensity of need, dimming his sight as it passed like an unseen weight upon the world.

That unseen weight flowed from Erick, into the dark glass, and into the body below the surface, wrapping around Hollowsaur’s core before sinking in and becoming one with the Shade’s entire being. The Shade’s Shroud folded back inward, a flower closing, back to how it had been before Erick had demanded the man’s life, and everything that went with it.

For a startling moment, Erick wondered what the fuck he had just done. And then he put aside thoughts of warcrimes and mind control. This obviously wasn’t mind control, after all. It was a blessing of sight and emotion that would link Hollowsaur back to the people he had tormented his entire life.

… If Erick had fucked up, maybe he would know sooner, rather than later.

A blue box appeared.

--

Blessing of Empathy, 30 seconds, Sound + Understanding + Acceptance, 1500 mana

Blessing magnifies when harm is committed.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

--

That line of smaller boxes was inscrutable and worrying, but that was a thought for another time.

Erick acted fast. With one Ophiel, he instantly [Stoneshape]d the dark glass out from around the Shade, rapidly excavating Hollowsaur’s front half before taking a bit more care with the bones, and with the dull orb in the center of it all. Free of his glassy prison, the orb began rapidly sucking up mana, becoming a well in the manasphere, as all power flowed in.

The crack in the orb repaired itself, mostly. Blood appeared out of shadows, to flow into veins and arteries that came out of nowhere, and were supported on invisible scaffolding. And then the flow of mana flickered. The orb shimmered, and cracked again, as all the blood and nascent organs in Hollowsaur’s body fell from their scaffolding. The man was dying.

Erick hadn’t done enough.

But what could he do to help, more? He wasn’t too sure, but he had some ideas.

With a thought, Erick had the Ophiel with his go-bag, who was currently stationed far out of sight, step across the Brightwater and into sight, carrying the rod of [Greater Treat Wounds] and a canteen of water. While that was happening, Erick had another Ophiel conjure a [Prismatic Ward] above the Shade’s body, while another [Stoneshape] turned the glass cavity into a true bowl, cupping all of Hollowsaur like a massive bathtub. The canteen of water emptied into an Ophiel’s grip, inside the [Prismatic Ward]. With a flick of [Cleanse] to clean out the water and the glass around Hollowsaur, but not Hollowsaur himself, an Ophiel released his [Duplication Aura]. Erick controlled the flow with his own solid lightform, so the high-pressure flow didn’t harm Hollowsaur. In a short while, Erick raised the water level around Hollowsaur, until the Shade was fully covered with minor-mana-potion water.

Shades were beings of mana, right? Erick had even trapped Hollowsaur and that other guy, Mallor, into a [Luminous Trap]. So even if they looked solid, they were not truly physical. Maybe. So a mana potion would help, right? Too bad Erick didn’t have any of those. The few stocks of potions he had seen in his various searches of this land, were here, in the Temple District, and those potions were very much gone.

The dark scaffold supporting Hollowsaur’s bones and bloody bits reappeared under the mana waters. As Erick watched, arteries and organs seemed to fluff up, as his white-orb center began to glow again.

With a command, another Ophiel turned on his [Cleanse Aura], but he didn’t inundate all of Hollowsaur at once. That would probably disturb the bones and building body parts too much. Instead, he manually moved the [Cleanse Aura] around the man, touching bones and blood, letting loose thick air under the water, like champagne bubbles. The veins around those bones were disturbed, but they came back into position fast enough.

Hollowsaur’s body came together even faster.

Erick touched the body with the rod of [Greater Treat Wounds].

Hollowsaur’s orb finally healed, the crack vanishing like it never was, as mana swirled down from all around, into the tank. Three seconds later, with a new heart sitting above his white orb, that heart pumped blood, and filled the tank with red. Erick was still able to watch with his mana sense, and an Ophiel’s [Blood Sight], as Hollowsaur repaired himself over the course of five minutes, eventually sucking all the water in the tank into his reformed body, exposing deep green skin that was unmarred by the man’s usual scars.

Erick sighed, hoping he had done the right thing.

Hollowsaur opened his eyes. They were not as bright as they had been, but they were still white. He said nothing, as he breathed. He stared up at nothing, while he laid there in his tank, and the world rained black waters all around their little [Weather Ward]ed area, but not upon him, or Erick, or Ophiel.

Hollowsaur clenched his fist at his side, then relaxed, as he touched the glass under himself. He sat up. He would not look at Erick. Erick did not speak, or force him to acknowledge anything.

A moment passed.

Hollowsaur gazed to his side, at the black glass landscape. Black rivulets ran down [Weather Ward] above, while Hollowsaur continued to stare.

Tears collected in his white eyes, and rolled off his face.

Erick waited.

Eventually, Hollowsaur said, “We’re not what he wants. I thought we were. Through everything… We did what he wanted… But it wasn’t… It wasn’t what he actually wanted. Was it?”

“A lot of people go through life pursuing things that are not good for them. I doubt the gods are any different than the rest of us.” Erick had made his voice kind, but now he turned stern, “The only way this is going to function is if you actually want to and then work towards a better future. Otherwise this arrangement is over before it can even begin.”

Hollowsaur laughed. He rubbed his eyes with the back of an arm. “Yeah.” He said, “I’m aware of the contract.” He breathed out, “Shit.” He touched his chest, and Erick saw the Shade’s soul flex. He said, “That’s some fucking… Some fucking Curse you got there.” He suddenly sobbed into his hands, heaving for a moment, right before his emotions overtook him and he just cried.

Erick watched as Hollowsaur’s soul turned chaotic and restless, and his heart beat hard atop the white core underneath. He watched as tendrils of something hopeful reached out from the man, attempting to connect to something out in the world, but failing. Erick wasn’t sure why he thought that Hollowsaur was trying to connect to someone, but it made sense. Or maybe Erick was just ascribing his own ideas to what he was seeing.

Hollowsaur suddenly cried even more, as he muttered, “Oooh, Spot. Fang…” He asked himself, “Why did I do that? Why… Why...”

Erick felt like reaching out to the man, but the day was young, and the war was still happening out there. So he said, “Hollowsaur.”

Hollowsaur snapped, “What?! Damn you!” Hollowsaur dropped his hands, showing a face full of anger. And then he blinked. Something shifted in his soul. He turned contrite, and worried, and chastised, all at once. He looked away, whispering, “Holy fuck. That’s some fucking curse you got there.”

“… It’s not a curse. It’s a blessing.”

“Ha!” Hollowsaur said, “Fuck you, I haven’t felt this way in 200 years. God. Wait.” He stared. “You.” His soul flickered, suddenly reaching out to Erick, only to be batted away by Erick’s own soul.

Erick frowned. “What the fu—”

“You got a connection to the Red Bitch, don’t you? I was free of her, dammit! FUCK YOU, ERICK.” Hollowsaur said, “I killed my pets so they couldn’t be used against me, and now you put your own damn leash around my neck! Fuck off and die!”

Normally, those sorts of words would have caused Erick pause, at the very least. But Hollowsaur’s anger had been an empty thing, directed at the air, and possibly at himself more than anyone else.

Erick ignored the man’s wants, and said, “I helped you because you helped those minotaurs become people again, even if you had to be forced into doing right. I returned your goodwill back to you, as one should do almost always.” He added, “And now, maybe you’ll actually be someone that others want to see in the world. It’ll be hard, and long, and distressing, but maybe you are worth saving. Maybe your life is worth living.”

“Then what about this damned curse?” Hollowsaur sneered, but his sneer faltered, even as his voice kept on going, “And your ability to ‘heal’ leaves much to be desired. What the fuck was is this… tub… And a magic wand! That’s... Learn some... Learn some darn magic… already.” He looked away, whispering, “Shit.” He lifted a hand, and touched the world, vibrating a red string that Erick had not noticed till Hollowsaur touched it. “Fuuuuuck.”

“… What was that?”

Hollowsaur glared at Erick, but had no fire in his eyes, or his expression. “You reconnected me to the Red Dreaming. Asshole.” He laughed, to cry, as he repeated, “Fuck.”

“I did no such thing?”

“You’re connected to the Red Dreaming, aren’t you?” Hollowsaur had said, “I hadn’t put any stock in those rumors, but I guess they were true. So this is my torment—” He suddenly stopped talking, and with a heavy voice, said, “I need to fix the minotaurs.”

Erick had no trouble letting his anger show in his own glare. “What did you do.”

Hollowsaur eyed Erick. “I fucked them over bad.”

“Then let’s have you help them. Fix them properly. Can you still [Shadowalk]?”

Hollowsaur touched the shadows all around him. Then he wrapped them around his waist, covering his nudity as he stood up, taking a half-step into the air to stand on shadows. “Fuck… I guess I can.” And then he glanced to the air, narrowed his eyes, then suddenly paled, his green skin turning seafoam, looking like he had seen his own ghost. He seemed to be reading something.

A Script message, then? It had to be. Erick waited.

Hollowsaur took a deep breath and touched a suddenly-appearing blue box to slide it Erick’s way, saying, “Looks like your Curse has gained some divine recognition.”

--

Special Quest!

Repent, Sinner.

Years: 0/101

Deeds: 0/1001

--

Erick read the box, then said to Hollowsaur, “It’s not a curse. It’s a blessing.”

Hollowsaur snorted. Then he pointed up and out. “You’ve got a tagalong, you know?”

Erick said, “Yeah. I know.” He looked to the left, spotting Caizoa in the sky, exactly where she had been for the last ten minutes. Ignoring her, Erick turned to Hollowsaur, and said, “After a stop by the map, let’s go help those minotaurs.”

Erick stepped away, his sunform flickering as he left. Hollowsaur followed, flickering shadows.

A second later, Caizoa followed, trailing sand.

- - - -

Erick needed to stop by the map to check on what he had seen there.

High above the bowl of Brightwater District, where an orb cascaded even higher above and the white map of Ar’Kendrithyst hovered in the middle of the sky, there were Shades, standing around, eyeing the map. When Erick stepped up to the space, with Hollowsaur trailing behind him, the Shades turned to Erick.

One of them was Lapis, the dark-skinned human Shade of Enchantment, who wore adventuring leathers with lots of pockets. Another was Farix, the blue-skinned incani Shade of Truedark Arcanaeum, who still wore robes. Goldie, the goldscale Shade of Assassination, hovered to the side, wearing a tight set of black cloth armor. None of them looked well rested, or happy about anything at all.

They were already looking Erick’s way as he stepped into the space. Erick regarded them and they regarded him with trepidation. But when Hollowsaur stepped in a bit behind Erick, the Shades all looked his way, their micro and macro expressions shifting to something calmer. Goldie looked hopeful, yet restrained, while the other two looked skeptical.

Hollowsaur spoke up, “Hey, fuckers. Come to join the winning team?”

“I saw you bawl like a baby.” Goldie instantly turned professional, and said, “So no. I won’t be accepting that curse.” With a clinical eye, she said, “Look at you. You can barely stand before the three of us. You’ve been neutered, and that won’t work for me right now. I will, however, take Erick up on his offer after this shit is over and Tania and her ilk are dead.”

Erick had many things to say about all of that, chiefly among those things was that he had not offered anyone anything. He didn’t get a chance to speak, though, before another did.

Lapis said, “I can enact Binding Oaths for us to all work together to—”

“No.” Goldie said, “You’re no better. Erick has morals and you do not. Look, Erick.” She pointed at herself with a manicured talon, saying, “I’m trustworthy, but you don’t know that and Tania and her ilk will start lying to you, now that you’ve made your move to control us. So do you want me in the shadows, or out in the open? Whatever makes you comfortable, but I will not accept a curse at this moment.”

Erick paused in thought. He understood what was happening here, and he did not like it. “… This is one of those ‘no right answer’ situations, I see.”

Goldie shook her head. “There is a right answer. It is one of the two I gave you. Or, I guess I could just hang around and wait for Tania to come for you.” She pointed at the map, at a cluster of blue dots to the east of the Spire. “That’s Tania.” She moved her hand a bit to the right, at almost the same spot, indicating a different cluster of dots, smaller than the first. “That’s Fallopolis.” She dropped her hand. “The ones around those two dots are the stupid ones, fighting out the main fight on those two sides.

“Tania wants to kill everyone except for a few incani, and maybe not even that. Fallopolis wants to kill everyone, except for her own chosen few, and maybe not even that.

“All of the idiots on both sides think that if they win that their leaders will not just turn around and kill them. But that’s what’s gonna happen. The people in those fights are not the ones destined to survive.” She pointed at lone blue dot after lone blue dot, saying, “After Fallopolis or Tania rout the other side and then travel all around Kendrithyst to kill all the stragglers, of course.” She looked to Erick. “I want to survive. And I saved you from Welodio that one time. It should buy me some goodwill, and I mean to take my due at this time. So do you want me out in the open, or hidden?”

Erick looked to the three of them, and then to Hollowsaur. He even gave a glance toward Caizoa, standing off in the distance. Turning back to the Shades, he asked, “Which one of you is going to inevitably betray me?” To their credit, not a single one flinched at Erick’s words. He added, “I guess you hear that all the time.”

Farix said, “Not quite those same words.”

“Normal enough expression, though,” Lapis said, “Which is why I suggest some Binding Oath Bracelets. These are also a normal enough method of ensuring that Oaths are upheld for a while.”

“Which means that you know all the ways to break them,” Erick said. “So why not just take the blessing now?”

Farix, Goldie, Lapis, and even Hollowsaur, each frowned a little. The first three disregarded Erick and turned to each other.

Goldie looked to Lapis, and said, “This really isn’t about him, right now. It’s about us three, here, and maybe more, with him as a guide and a goal.”

Farix said, “We will need his Curse put upon us when this is over or we will just be hunted down like animals by the rest of the world, or whatever batch of Shades come next. So it is about him, somewhat.” He glanced to Erick saying, “But right now Hollowsaur couldn’t hurt a cow—”

Hollowsaur sobbed once, hard, and then schooled that emotion away as fast as he could.

That was completely unexpected.

Erick’s eyes went wide as he turned to the large orcol. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Hollowsaur lied. He added, “But I need to go fix the minotaurs. And they’re right. I’m going to be useless in a fight.” He leveled a pointed finger at Erick, and like a kitten trying to be forceful, he said, “Don’t you dare die on me.” He froze. He realized how he had seemed, and what he had just said. “… Shit.” He stepped away, flashing dark.

“A neutered stallion.” Goldie said, “But that’s the goal, when this is over. A curse round the neck is better than oblivion.” She turned to Lapis. “Fine. Let’s do this Binding Bracelet thing.” She asked Erick, “Is that good enough for you? For now?”

It absolutely was not. None of this was good, or okay, or enough. He had wanted some allies, and this was the way, but these people just showed up, all on their own! Hollowsaur was one thing, but that man was dying and Erick had a way to solve that problem…

And then Erick came back to the people in front of him. None of them were willing to take on his blessing. None of them were willing to prove that they were as contrite as Hollowsaur had been forced to be.

And sure, Erick saw that Hollowsaur was rather… different from how he used to be. But it would be a damn long time before Erick considered Hollowsaur a changed person, just because of some words written in a blue box and cursed— Blessed! And blessed into his soul!

But then Erick looked at Lapis, and Farix, and Goldie. They seemed sincere. Erick had already had come-to-Jesus moments with the first two (Maybe. Could have been fake. This was all happening way too fast.) which is likely why they chose to approach him instead of taking their chances on their own. Goldie was a wildcard, though. And yet…

Erick wanted to offer them an honest hand out of the darkness that had been their life.

What had he told Yggdrasil? ‘It was better to be kind and get hurt, than to cause hurt upon another, for violence was hard to stop once it began.’ That statement was still true, even in the face of horror. And that’s who Erick was, at his core. He forgave, perhaps stupidly. But then again, he had seen people turn their lives around just because they were offered a hand up, rather than a jail sentence, or bills they could never pay, or be forced to live with their abusers. Sometimes, all it took was a little kindness to guide the hurt and the hopeless onto the right path.

For what was the alternative?

If Erick didn’t open up another part of his heart, then these people were going to hurt others.

And besides… Erick might not survive this Shadow’s Feast if he didn’t have a few more allies.

A cynical part of himself spoke of how normal people would never get the opportunity Erick had right now. That the Shades were right about at least one thing: Might Makes Right. If Erick wasn’t this powerful, then none of these opportunities would have come his way.

If Erick had been the same person he was when he first fell to Veird, none of these Shades would respect him enough to even entertain the idea of accepting his blessing. They would just kill him, out of hand, and because it would bring them a little bit of joy.

Erick looked to Lapis, and asked, “How do those Binding things work? Do they force specific actions?”

“No. They’re not that binding.” Lapis explained, “They’re an honor-based system stitched with a bit of Time Magic that will alert the rest of the group if one of the members breaks the binding. The point is to not break them, and yes, you can get around these Binding Oath bracelets if you word them incorrectly. But in this case we can word them simple-like so that breaking them can happen with the least bit of misconduct or the immediate intention to commit malfeasance.” She pulled three dark bands from a small pocket on the side of her leathers, speaking to Goldie and Farix, as she said, “What sort of Oath do you want? I am comfortable with ‘Do no harm to our future chances at gaining Erick’s Curse.’”

Farix said, “Could be stronger.”

Goldie suggested, “I would prefer, ‘Do what it takes to gain Erick’s Curse when this current Feast is over, with the intention of following through with the Quest we all saw Hollowsaur get’.”

Erick spoke up, “It’s not a curse. That wording would be an automatic failure of binding. And if you three already know this and are fucking with me, then this temporary relationship is already off to a bad start.”

The three Shades looked at him.

Farix said, “I thought you were joking—”

“It’s really a blessing?” Lapis asked.

“So you’re good with this?” Goldie asked, cutting to the point.

Lapis followed her lead, saying, “We could go with a ‘Blessing’ wording, instead.”

Erick said, “I am not good with this. But I’d rather force more Shades to repent for a hundred years and a thousand deeds than have Tania reestablish power and fuel the Quiet War to a dark end.” The silver star on his chest, that was now just a part of his sunform, turned pleasantly cold. Erick added, “That said, I will not prevent Tania or Fallopolis from coming for you, and I will not stand with you when the time comes.”

Farix said, “Of course not. You’re still Untouchable. I’m going to stand behind you when Tania shows up, and hopefully that will be enough to survive that encounter.”

Lapis frowned. “We can do more than survive if we work together.”

“Impossible.” Goldie said, “She’s still the Champion of Melemizargo, and our divine backing has evaporated. Standing behind Erick is the only way. He is still Untouchable; that much has not changed.”

“What does that even mean?” Erick asked, “Mechanically?”

Lapis said, “Melemizargo placed a limiter on our cores when he called you Untouchable. This limiter will cause a Fracture if we harm you before you harm one of us. It’s a death sentence in almost any normal situation, and especially so since you’ve demonstrated an ability to survive the first strike. But if you harm one of us, that limiter is removed on a one-by-one basis.” She added, “You already attacked Bulgan, though, so his limiter is off.”

“… Shit.” Erick felt a thought creep up. “That was part of the reason for Bulgan going to Candlepoint, wasn’t it?”

Goldie said, “No. Bulgan never had a limiter.”

Lapis said, “What? Really?”

Erick sighed.

Farix said, “Tania still has a limiter, just like the rest of us. If Tania attacked you, Erick, then even her core would crack. We could kill her, then. That is my plan; to get her to attack you. Know it now, so that you’re not surprised later.”

“Mine, too.” Lapis said.

“Mine, as well. I am glad to see we are of the same design.” Goldie emphatically declared, “We have spent too much time talking. Look.” She pointed back to Erick’s map.

Five blue dots were fighting ten blue dots, just south of the Armory, moving back and forth, stepping here and there, their battle taking place over a ten kilometer section of Ar’Kendrithyst. Elsewhere on the map, a good dozen dots moved around the rest of the city, while a good hundred or more sat stationary.

Erick noted to himself that the Armory had a good twenty static blue dots; a good twenty Shade-cores, perhaps? Were they actually Shade-cores? Erick still wasn’t exactly sure. They seemed to be stuck inside architectural parts of the city, as well as inside every Shade. Maybe they were something else, entirely.

He listened to the distant sky. The sounds of battle were too distant to hear, for Fallopolis and Tania’s battle was at least 50 kilometers away and past a lot of intervening crystals.

Goldie said, “Right now, Bulgan is helping Tania fight Fallopolis’s forces, but when Tania has finally killed that crazy Culler, she and Bulgan will come here.” She stared at Erick with white eyes, saying, “Which is why you need us.”

Erick asked, “And what if Fallopolis wins?”

“Then we are doomed to die.” Goldie said, “But if you think to use her to kill us and keep your hands clean, my last act in this life will be to take your head.”

Erick leaned back in the air, saying, “Ahhh. There we go. There’s the threat.”

“Since we are still talking —while we are in the middle of a serious conflict, mind you— instead of solving some problems, then threats have become necessary to provoke movement.” Goldie glanced toward the map. One of the blue dots on the smaller side was gone, now. She glanced to the air, then said, “Stardust is dead. Tania has gained the upper hand. Fallopolis is down to four people on her side. We’re doing this.” She turned to the other two Shades, saying, “We can talk about strategy after we have laid the bedrock for a strategy to happen.”

Farix looked from Lapis to Goldie, saying, “I am comfortable with Goldie’s suggestion for the Oath. ‘Do what it takes to get and then thrive under Erick’s Blessing by the end of this Shadow’s Feast’. How does that sound?”

Lapis held up three bracelets, saying, “Perfect.”

Goldie nodded. “Do it.”

Lapis spoke words of power into the bracelets, “Do what it takes to get and then thrive under Erick’s Blessing by the end of this Shadow’s Feast.”

Like the plug pulled in a bathtub, mana flowed from all around, into the bracelets in Lapis’s hands, turning the dark bands into something prismatic, and then back to black. She slipped one around her left wrist, and then tossed the other two to Goldie and Farix. They wasted no time in putting them on. The bands flickered prismatic, before turning dark again around their wrists.

Erick asked, “Now what?”

Lapis said, “No idea.”

“Prepare and fight hard,” Farix said.

Goldie rattled off events as she saw them, “The most likely turn of events is that Fallopolis loses, she falls back, she incorporates Erick into her strategy, Bulgan gets involved. We kill Bulgan before he kills Erick. Tania enrages and wipes the floor with all of us. We all die, including Erick. Tania goes into hiding, to orchestrate the downfall of humanity from the shadows.” She looked to the air, as her aura turned diffuse, like a mist spreading from her soul. She began making shit up; guessing, “The World Tree under Sininindi is used to enact Scripts on the other worlds of this orbital system. A century or two passes. Tania makes her way to one of these new worlds, after they stop looking for her. Maybe Melemizargo has a new Clergy by then. Maybe they’re already searching for her… to kill or to drag into their hierarchy… And… That’s all I got. Can’t see too far into the future, but that’s the closest to the truth, right now.”

Erick would have paled if he had been in his human body. He recognized a pattern in Goldie’s casual use of magic. Goldie wasn’t just rattling off events as she saw them. She was actually seeing future events. Erick glanced to Farix and Lapis, and saw two very concerned people, their worry showing in the lines of their faces. He looked to Goldie, and saw nothing but certainty.

Erick asked, “How often do you use the future to determine the present?”

“All the time.” Goldie said, “I’m usually perfectly reliable to a good five minutes out. Past that, it gets nebulous. Sharing what I know about the future usually ruins it, sending the paths into spirals and fractures. But I am telling you now because the futures where I don’t tell you are less-hopeful than the ones where I do.” She added, “This is the only time I will be discussing my power.”

“No.” Erick said, “No.” He demanded, “Tell me why you can’t kill Tania, yourself. Your power seems too powerful.”

“Because, Erick.” Goldie said, “Time watching is a trick, and tricks do not matter in the face of overwhelming power.”

“I always wondered how you did what you did.” Farix asked, “But what now?”

Goldie said, “I’m good with defending here.”

Lapis said, “Here is fine. We’ll be able to see them coming from every angle without dividing ourselves off into sentry-eyes.”

Goldie lifted her head up, as she turned toward Caizoa, who remained in the sky, in the far distance. “She’s going to be a problem, but there’s not much we can do about that.” Goldie turned to Erick, saying, “If you make yourself truly vulnerable in front of her, she’ll probably kill you. Hard to tell, though. Too much divine interference.”

“I wasn’t going to do that, anyway.”

“Uh-huh,” Goldie said, unconvinced.

Erick frowned, then looked to the other two. “You two got any special powers?”

Lapis said, “Tania and her kind raided my Forge, so all I have is what I have on me, and these trinkets will make themselves known at the appropriate time.”

Farix snorted. “About what you’d expect from the Shade of Enchantment.”

“Since we’re at the end, why not tell us all what your abilities are, then, Professor?” Lapis needled. “Never seen you do much of anything!”

“Ethereal Elemental-Blood explosions.” Farix said, “Back when I had the Script, I could do times-five multipliers, all day long. It’s a lot better these days.”

Lapis’s eyes briefly went wide. She looked between Erick and Farix, asking, “Did you—”

Goldie sighed, loudly.

Lapis smirked as she couldn’t help but to postulate, “Blood explosions, eh? Did you put that criminal up to extorting Erick?”

Erick looked to Farix. The incani’s face betrayed nothing. No visible, or invisible part of him did, either. But Erick still stared, wondering how he would answer.

Farix said, “The only hand I had in all of that was teaching others how to properly explode various things, and bodies make very good material.”

Erick sighed, hated everything for a brief moment, then decided to accept this lot in life, for now, as he banished an uncomfortable thought and turned his attention to the map. Hollowsaur’s dot, presumably, had been moving around the Jungle for a little while now, but it had stopped for the last five minutes at a place near the water’s edge. Erick sent an Ophiel stepping through the light, in that direction.

Erick changed topics, “So you all saw that Quest he got when he showed it to me, right?”

Nods all around.

“So how are you spying on me, exactly?”

Lapis said, “Long range sentry-eyes.”

“Shadow Sight,” Goldie said.

“Shadow Sight,” Farix said.

Farix and Goldie looked to each other for a brief moment.

“Whatever. Okay. Fine. So. Did Hollowsaur fake that Quest?” Erick said, “He ran off rather fast, and he certainly did not look healthy when he went. I heard that faking a Script screen even does bad things for Shades.”

Farix suddenly narrowed his eyes at Hollowsaur’s dot. He said, “I certainly hope it was real. Fucker better not have faked it.”

Goldie shook her head, saying, “He didn’t fake it.” She spoke to the sky, “And I want the same damn one, Rozeta.” She winced as she spoke Rozeta’s name. Blood trickled from her nose, but she just wiped it away. “Yeah. Yeah. I hear your complaints about my existence.” She spoke to the group, “We’ve got some downtime till the fight gets to us. Anyone got any bright ideas?”

“Let’s move to some other location.” Erick glanced down. Somewhere far below, maybe 25 kilometers deep and past a heavy layer of white light, there were people living around the Brightwater. He said, “I don’t want stray spells to hit anyone down there.”

Goldie said, “Fine by me. Let’s go up another twenty kilometers.”

Lapis asked, “To the Edge?”

“Yes.” Goldie said, “Having a wall to one side might help. Crystal towers certainly won’t help.” She glanced at the map again, saying, “Too many elemental-aligned Shades in there.”

- - - -

Caizoa watched as Erick stepped through the sky, with three Shades at his side. First, he goes Cursing Hollowsaur into a meek puppy, then he gets three more to divulge critical abilities, just like that, and then he actually works with them? He was too naive, for sure. If he ever met the Converter Angel, he would become the Wasteland’s greatest threat. He’s surely try to talk to the damn thing, and that would doom them all.

Shades couldn’t be corrupted by the Angels, but Erick was already way more powerful than many Shades, though he acted weak, for some bizarre reason.

It was truly odd how he had gained so much power, in such a short time. His whole planar-story had to be cowshit, of course. Some sort of act. Some sort of ploy. Maybe he had been a Shade all along? Supposedly, he had met Melemizargo in his first moments on Veird, but that would have been insane, right? That couldn’t have possibly happened.

The Black Star spoke in her mind, ‘I am starting to come around on the necessity of killing Erick. He is too easy to trick. He is too enamored with untainted peace. He cannot get done what needs to get done.’ The artifact added, ‘But I sense a disturbance in your own resolve. Pray tell, what are you thinking?’

‘I am thinking that I need to show him that Shades cannot be trusted. Uncle was the only good one. And then Tania killed him… And then Fallopolis killed everyone… else...’ Caizoa held back tears, recalling a horrific morning and an hour of fighting for her life, and yet failing her friends.

Everything had gone so crazy, and then she touched the Black Star, and finally found peace in the storm, only to be reminded that everyone she knew was dead. She had no idea where one problem started, or ended, or even how she ended up pointed at Erick in the first place. She did know that part of the plan everyone had decided upon was to kill Erick, if they got the chance. That part was as true in the beginning as it was right now, and made all the more true for Erick’s displayed power. He had shut down that other Shade, Mallor, with two spells! He was too strong.

But… Caizoa wondered if her memories had been altered.

Maybe they had?

Maybe she was going a bit crazy. She had heard that Fallopolis had killed Anopix, but…

Everything she heard in this Dead City was a lie. Uncle Anopix always said that. Don’t trust any of the other Shades.

And just now, she heard that Tania wanted to ‘orchestrate the downfall of humanity’.

So that meant that she should work with them, right? But… Uncle Anopix always said to not trust the other Shades. Uncle was a good man. The Shades of Ar’Kendrithyst were the strongest, yes, but they were also the most evil. Anopix was a good, honorable man.

… Could Tania have killed him? He would have opposed total war. He just wanted to destroy the Angels and the moon, Celes.

… This was too much. As a headache threatened, Caizoa came to a conclusion: All Shades Need To Die. A simple, elegant idea. The Shades killed Uncle, and now they would die, too, and that included Tania.

Erick’s death could come later.

She asked, ‘If you’re still not convinced that Erick needs to die, then are you up for Shade killing?’

‘Of course. I have seen these people at their worst for a long time. Even the one Erick has Blessed is still a liability. They all need to die and leave this world behind.’ The Black Star added, ‘Erick might be salvageable, though, so I am glad you are thinking thoughts along those lines.’

‘I’m just pursuing all ideas. Do you think he could actually range-kill the Converter Angel without subjecting himself to danger?’

‘I only know the current world through your eyes, but from what I’ve seen and felt from you, and from previous interactions with archmages of his caliber, Erick could probably range-kill the Converter Angel.’ The Black Star sent, ‘It would be much easier for you to track the Angel down and do it yourself, though.’

Caizoa moved forward, to stand before the vacated map, floating in the air. She looked it over, and asked, ‘Which one is Fallopolis?’

‘Are you still going to go after her?’ The Black Star lit up a silver blot in Caizoa’s vision, right over one of the blue dots on Erick’s map. ‘There she is. It appears she’s down to 4 compatriots. I would be happy with her death, too.’

‘And Tania?’

‘I cannot offer full protection from a Champion of Melemizargo, but I can offer a minute of protection.’

‘Understood. Tania?’

A different silver dot lit up on the map. Tania was surrounded by seven blue dots.

Caizoa hefted her three-meter long sword. Divine fire flared around her blue armor and in her eyes, as she said, “I didn’t plan on killing all the Shades, but when in Ar’Kendrithyst…”

‘You could use the levels, anyway.’

‘ I could. I only got 25% Participation on that last one.’

- - - -

Ophiel stepped back to the edge of the map, as Caizoa departed.

Erick searched for Violet, using a DNA sample he had already gathered, well before now.

He found traces of her in the Palace District, next to the brand new kilometer-wide hole in the ground that had been Quilatalap’s house, and some of the Palace. He did not find Violet, herself. He had hoped that he could have found her, but it was not to be. He searched for Violet, herself, just to be sure. Zero results.

Erick searched for Quilatalap through his DNA.

Quilatalap’s DNA was shit, though. It might not even have been real. Zero blue dots in the Brightwater. Zero blue dots on the rest of the map. A search for the man himself also turned up nothing.

He spied on Hollowsaur, both with a check through the [Cascade Imaging] for his DNA and through the Ophiel he had sent the orcol’s way. Hollowsaur’s DNA was shit, too. Erick was beginning to suspect that Shades were more shadow than true substance, and undead might be much the same. Erick wondered if he would have the same problems searching for the Converter Angel.

Erick might have gotten zero results for Hollowsaur’s DNA, but he already knew where the man was. Erick switched the map back to searching for Shade cores, and then he switched his sight into the Ophiel who he had sent Hollowsaur’s way.

Almost all of the minotaurs on the beach were crashed out on the sands, while Hollowsaur went from person to person, touching souls, and transforming flesh. The minotaurs in front of the man were more beast than person, with massive horns and shaggy fur, with hooves for hands and feet, while their mouths were made of fangs. The ones behind him looked like people. Humanish, or orcolish, with shaggy red hair and bronzed skin, but no fur. Some had horns. All had hooves for feet. All had souls that were less monstrous, and more normal. None of them had been wearing clothes, but while Hollowsaur healed his wrongdoing and moved onto the next, his small green people began moving amid the changed and shoving them into clothes while they slept on, unaware of their surroundings.

Erick turned a [Scry] eye toward the people at the Bend in the North River. The people he had saved from Dorofiend had gathered up thirty more. They must have caught wind of the current battles raging across Ar’Kendrithyst, for they were layering their defenses wherever they could. Their various walls of magic would give them a little time to escape, or possibly weather the storm if they only took glancing blows.

From what Erick was seeing, the only way for them to survive would be to get lucky, and not experience the battle, at all.

For Erick saw the battle, now, after stepping high enough into the sky to crest the ridge of the Brightwater District’s curtain wall, and then step higher. Much of Ar’Kendrithyst was laid before him, far down below. A good distance away, thirty or forty kilometers or more, Erick wasn’t sure, great plumes of black swallowed the land beyond red-purple kendrithyst towers. Waves of red smashed the sky like a deity striking a gong, sending a shake across the heavens that was heard all the way to where Erick, Goldie, Farix, and Lapis stood, waiting for the fight to come to them, and for the world to end.

“Shit.” Erick said, “How fucking big was that red smash? Who did that?”

“Ten kilometers wide, but that doesn’t matter. It won’t happen again.” Goldie said, “That was Crimsonair. He’s dead, now. Fallopolis is down to three extras. She might start fighting for real.”

“Ha,” Erick said, without mirth. “Calling them ‘extras’.”

Farix joked, “There goes my rejuvenation treatments.”

Lapis chuckled, a nervous reaction, and then offered, “I’ve got some rings that help with that.”

Goldie looked to them, and said, “You two need to take this more seriously.”

Farix said, “I preferred you when you were bubbly and drunk at the party.”

“And I preferred being that person.” Goldie said, “But needs must, and all that shit.”

“When this is over, I’m turning hermit.” Lapis said, “Far away from everyone. Catch me teaching a few good students every year like Quilatalap, or something.”

Farix said, “That won’t be enough to satisfy that Quest we saw.”

“I’ll figure it out.” Lapis said, “I’m sure this is just another trial of Our Dark God. We can survive this and come out stronger on the other side.”

Goldie said, “I’m going to end the wars in Nelboor. That should be acceptable for a few thousand good deeds.”

Farix asked, “How are you going to do that without killing?”

“That’s easy.” Goldie said.

Erick waited.

Goldie didn’t elaborate. Farix didn’t pursue the rest of her answer. Lapis had her eyes fixed to the north, where crashing wind sliced the sky with shockwaves, and lines of darkness carved through kendrithyst towers, lopping off tops to then crash down into the darkness below.

Goldie said, “I’m heading further up, and then I’m vanishing for the fight. I’ll help from the shadows.” She stepped upward, flashing darkness, her voice trailing away as she vanished from sight.

Lapis nervously chuckled, again, and said, “I’m… I’m going to…” Her voice trailed off. She stepped up, into the sky, past the illusions of false planets hanging up there, going further and further until she was barely visible.

Erick realized, with a start, that the illusion had changed. The sky used to be a mess of worlds, surrounded by a thick Mana Ocean, but almost all of those myriad worlds were gone, now. Belatedly, Erick realized that when the Red Smash had happened, three seconds later, an illusionary world of buildings and architecture vanished, like it had never been. The deaths of the Shades killed their illusions.

With a bit of dark humor, Erick realized that he might actually get to see which illusion was Fallopolis’s, if only after the fact. But that was for later. For now...

Erick looked to Farix, and at the black band on his wrist. “What’s your plan?”

Farix took a moment. He breathed, as though going through scenarios in his head. He said, “I will summon some helpers.” Farix cast a bloody dot into the air that became like a gravity well, sucking up ambient mana. The bloody spell drifted away, then hovered at a far distance, while a faint tendril of intent connected it to Farix. The Shade summoned another, then said to Erick, “I look forward to working with you all if we survive this.”

“How is this supposed to work when none of us have worked together before?”

“Just don’t worry about hitting teammates.” Farix said, “Try not to take any direct hits, either. I imagine that Tania will stop using area spells once she comes this way, just so she doesn't risk hurting you and causing a deviation in her core.”

For a brief moment, Erick wondered if he could solve all the world’s problems by making himself vulnerable. And then his brain started working again, [Hunter’s Instincts] seeming to poke his thoughts back on track.

Farix summoned another three bloody orbs while Erick had his moment of thought. Those orbs now floated around him in perfect formation. Erick looked to the man, and wondered when, exactly, he would betray them.

Farix noticed Erick’s glance, and said, “Thanks for agreeing to this. I know we sort of shoved this at you without much notice, but I’m glad you decided to trust us, at least a little.”

Erick was still running [Hunter’s Instincts], and had been running it this whole time. With his Regeneration, and with the Health Cost reductions of his boosted Dexterity, [Hunter’s Instincts] cost almost nothing to maintain. Almost nothing.

But the Skill had a habit of warping his perceptions of reality, of seeing danger everywhere.

It had served him well when Hollowsaur was trapped inside glass, and then later, when he had freed the orcol. Erick got no perceptions of danger from him. But here, alone with Farix, there was a danger.

So Erick decided to test the waters, exposing a fact he had kept to himself until now, as he said, “I know you orchestrated some of that hit upon me; that shit with Poriti. I don’t need Lapis to point that out. Not that she’s any better, with her human experimentation to make those new Stat trees.” As Farix flinched, Erick continued, “You couldn’t get the Stat fruits you wanted, or something? Perhaps it was the rings themselves on my fingers, that were the big prize. They unlocked every Stat, and they’re artifacts. That makes them at least as good as those elemental dice that Toymaker showed off. I could see some sort of many-pronged scheme to take them from me, though threatening my family was in poor form.”

Farix casually summoned another blood orb, and said, “Do you really want to do this right now?”

As if to punctuate his statement, a part of the world 35 kilometers away was swallowed by a black orb. When it vanished, the tops of the towers that had been there were now gone, as though they had been scooped away.

“No.” Erick said, “I would like to not do this at all. But then you all invited me into here for this Feast, and started this chain of events yourselves. I am only thankful that whatever schemes everyone else had planned on days four through ten are likely as dead as their planners.”

After a long moment, Farix lied, “Tania forced me to participate in that shit with Poriti.”

Erick would have liked to have been surprised at the attempt to lie, but he was not. His voice stung with sarcasm, “What a convenient set of circumstances for you.”

“Fine.” Farix said, “You want me to come clean?”

“Yes. I would.”

“I never wanted to be a Shade. I wanted to be a damned researcher. But the only way anyone survives this place is to get on top and stay on top. So I did what had to be done.”

“What does that have to do with threatening my family, and setting bombs in kids?”

“That wasn’t me. Not directly.” Farix scowled. He breathed deep. He said, “I gave my son, Poriti, to the Rollini Family thirty years ago. He found out I was his father when he was 16.” Farix said, “He sought me out, and won my respect. I told him I would help as much as I could, but I would not shield him from his consequences. He was a good kid, but I was not a good father, for I couldn’t be. The rest of the Clergy would have killed him just to see what I would do. So he laid low. For a long time, he was a part of the White Market of Truedark, and he would tell me what was happening in the criminal world of my Arcanaeum.” He sighed. “And then… Either Lapis gave him the Charisma Fruit, or he got involved with her some other way. Things went downhill from there. I always told him I would never protect him if his schemes caught too big of a fish, and he never tested me against the Clergy, but I ended up helping him out of way too many problems. In the end, I couldn’t help him survive his encounter with you.”

Erick nodded, as several wriggling thoughts slipped into place. “You didn’t care about the bombs in the kids at all, did you?”

“Of course I cared about that.” Farix declared, “I won’t kill kids. How the fuck do you think that Poriti knew of that fucking fact? I told him one day! Stupidly told him. Fuck.”

“Well…” Erick decided, “With any luck, you’ll be able to make up for all the shit you’ve done.”

“… yeah, yeah.”

“It’s too bad that power is so necessary to this life.” Erick asked, “Have you ever considered that all your problems stem from a need for power?”

Farix snorted a laugh. “Yeah. And all of the solutions come from the same place.” He added, “This is a world of monsters, Erick. If I wasn’t in the Clergy, I would have died to the stragglers that make it past the walls and down into Truedark, or to those who kill more than I killed.”

“Then maybe there shouldn’t be any monsters.”

“There are always monsters.” Farix said, “Behind every corner. Under every bed. In the forests and in the deserts.”

“You misunderstand. Maybe Melemizargo shouldn’t have made the monsters in the first place. That’s what this whole Shadow’s Feast is about, isn’t it? The First Triumph of Melemizargo against the Script. The creation of the monsters.”

Farix scrunched his eyes at Erick. “Melemizargo didn’t make them. Rads have always formed inside all living creatures, even back in the Old Cosmology. Back then they were a lot more dangerous than these days, too. After the Sundering, Melemizargo’s First Feast was a result of asking the monsters to fight for him, to tear down the Script that had imprisoned him, and them. He barely had to ask. Every single creature with a rad in their heart knew, instinctively, what had been done to them. That’s why the monsters and the ancients still fight, to this day, against anyone who has Matriculated into the Script.”

Interesting way to view the facts, but Erick instantly latched onto a problem with his argument. “What about the slimes?”

Farix laughed. “Don’t fall asleep with a slime in the room. No matter how bouncy and cute they are, they’ll still try to suffocate you and eat you alive—” He looked across the Dead City, and muttered, “Shit.”

Erick gazed down at the bright crystal towers of Ar’Kendrithyst, and watched as three detonations of magical power rocked the land. With a glance down to the Ophiel near the map, he saw that two of those three detonations had happened on Fallopolis’s side. Only one of them happened on Tania’s side.

“Why isn’t Tania just Judging everyone?” Erick asked, feeling a rising panic. Fallopolis was alone, now, and she was coming this way.

“Limited use, I’d imagine, otherwise we wouldn’t have time to have this conversation. I’m not too sure how Tania’s Champion magic works.” Farix stepped up, higher into the sky, dragging his bloody orbs with him as he ascended, saying, “Try not to aim at us, Erick. We’ll do the same.”

As Farix went out of sight, into the sky, Erick considered the facts in front of him. Maybe Tania needed someone else to kill Fallopolis? That made more sense than a limit on her magic. Fallopolis had survived a Judgment already, after all.

Fallopolis stepped right in front of Erick. Her hair was wild, her kendrithyst staff was broken. Her flouncy black dress was scorched and burned, along with her flesh underneath. She smiled, wild and crazy as she spied Erick. “Oh! HELLO THERE! Fancy meeting you in this place.” She cackled, and said, “I hope you’re ready!”

Another Fallopolis stepped into the air, not too far away.

There was a surreal moment.

Fallopolis looked at Fallopolis, and then the second one’s eyes went wide, as she said, “It’s the Witch! Kill the bitch!”