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Adventure City had a real name long ago, but that name was lost to time, and little more than useless trivia these days, for the city had gone through a good hundred names or more. ‘The Cavern’. ‘Hope’. ‘The Illuminated Land’. Etcetera.

Located roughly a thousand kilometers up from the Core of Veird, and directly below Quintlan, the exact history of the place was as nebulous as the stories surrounding it, because until Erick came along, it was damned dangerous to get here. Level 90 monsters prowled this part of the Underworld regularly, and the [Ward]s of the place could only do so much, and even more problematic is that when the caster who made those defenses died, those defenses died with them. Many people survived those purges, though, but only for one reason. If you lived here, you were a powerhouse, willing to raise other powerhouses to glory, while doing your damnedest to escape death.

It was a journey of months, and sometimes years to get to Adventurer City, where a team of ruffians and ne'erdowells could come into their own, surviving in the Dark and becoming a team worthy of song when they finally made it to this base. And when they got there, they’d be an asset to those who lived there.

Most people just died on the journey.

Sometimes, people pilgrimaging to Adventurer City would get here and find it destroyed, and survivors trying to take it back. Most of the time, people would come here and rest up and make new friends and connections in order to go right back out, into the Dark, or deeper toward the Core. Or they’d work to build roads through the Dark, always looking for the real challenges.

And then there was the prestige of it all; of getting down here, and then surviving to tell others the way. The Adventurer’s Guild, as it exists today, was built upon the actions of people who did all of that, and more. The people who lived here could trace their history to those who had rescued the world from the Dark since the Sundering, and some people could trace even further back than that, to places and powers in the Old Cosmology.

These were people of courage and strength. Of power. Of drive.

Erick took the [Gate] network.

Granted, Erick did have to come down here on his own once before, to set up the Gates. He had even spent a few more hour-long visits beyond that to spend time with Jane. But he hadn’t stuck around at all. This was Jane’s home now, and Erick tried to respect that distance she had put up between them, even though it wasn’t any real distance at all.

But with Erick had come a connection to the Gate Network and a complete obliteration of the entire culture of this land.

It was a welcome change for many. There were only so many times that a starving and desperate adventurer could boil the green muck they find off of cave walls and eat that, before they went mad with the desire for a nice chicken sandwich. Or potatoes. Or fresh bread!

These days, millions of people the world over avoided all of that ‘adventurer nonsense’, as they called it whenever the adventurers weren’t around, to get right to this metropolis in the Underworld; the only place where the wrought were a side attraction, instead of the main defensive force. Or at least that’s what both the rulers of this land and the nearby wrought led people to believe.

According to Silverite, told to Erick in drunken confidence long ago, Adventurer City was kinda like the Sovereign Cities, before Erick came along. Adventurers are all kinda shadeling-shit crazy, after all. Those kinds of people did not make for great governors. But still it was better if this land was occupied than not, so the wrought tried to help from the shadows, when they could, for this land was very, very large, and it needed a lot of people to maintain it, and the nearest Geode was too far away to do it themselves.

In all the ways a society could be measured, Adventurer City was better as it was now, with the Gate Network, than it was before, with the vagaries of broken governance and otherwise that had plagued its existence for the last 1400-ish years.

Like a common tourist, Erick stepped out of a circle of white light, onto a white stone platform, directly into the city, into a land of light and stone under a stony sky, where unassailable [Ward]s marked the land with ultimate defense, and nothing crawled in any of the shadows, and the shadows weren’t real shadows anyway. Erick hadn’t been here in a long time, and the place was looking better than it had before. A lot more civilized. Amazing what some uninterrupted peace could do even for a place like this.

All around Erick lay the central Gatestation of Adventurer City, the central node of the Local Area Gate Network down here, in this part of the Underworld. Four other Gates held open across the square, with illuminated wardlights holding above those passageways into other lands, telling where they were connected. Those wardlights and their connected magitech could turn and show a different destination, while also shifting the other end of the [Gate] into the next land. All of that was under the control of the central waystation, where workers and guards stood watch over it all, shifting the Gates and hurrying people along to their destinations as necessary.

Those people instantly saw Erick, while Erick made a show of looking around, craning his neck as Ophiel flew away, into the [Ward]ed air. There were zones open to flight beyond the city in those [Ward]s out there, looking like open windows among the light, but the nearest open zone was several kilometers away, and highly guarded. So Ophiel just made himself some small [Gate]s to get past the barriers, into the grand cavern beyond.

All of the Underworld had caverns like the one down here, but not all of them were built the same, or uniform. Some places were passageways. Some were holding areas. As for the passages, there were intake going from Surface to Core, where thick air from [Cleanse] and otherwise sunk down, following paths of least resistance, following alongside water in some cases. There were also places where water and otherwise went up through the tunnels and canyons and empty spaces of the Underworld, up to the Surface; water springs the size of seas. Large open spaces abounded everywhere; from the massive ocean that lay just beneath Candlepoint, to the large open space below Ar’Kendrithyst, where the Living Geode Kendrithyst used to exist, but did no longer.

Adventurer City was an open space and downflow both.

The current iteration of the city was a large sphere, a hundred kilometers across, festooned with buildings and spires and otherwise, rising up from that sphere. The sphere itself floated off to the side of a large gap in the Underworld. To the north of the city was the downflow, where thick mana collected from holes all across the interior of the space, to flow together into a strand of thick air, down, down, down to the Core. Level 90 Domain monsters were located around 500 kilometers down that hole. Up here, by the city itself, the monsters were still level 90, but they didn’t have Domains.

Most of those monsters were inside the dark dungeon entrances scattered everywhere out there in the cavern, though. Not too many wandering around, these days. Not too many dangers out there, preying on people.

The city was protected, anyway. The node network that lit up this land like the Surface at noon had a lot to do with that. Adventurer City even had a dungeon, deep in the core of this 100 kilometer-wide stone sphere, which further protected this city by making sure no dungeon slimes extended their dungeons into this land.

Erick cast his gaze wide, to the edges of the cavern far, far away, to see black portals here and there amid the dark rock, and shadows. He flicked his All-Seeing Eye amulet wide, to pierce stone and [Ward] and all obscuring objects, to see the small hole in the very center of Adventurer City, where the dungeon portal of this city lay, mostly inactive.

He pulled his Absolute Sight back and saw bakeries and theaters and arenas and war halls and mercenary company houses of all kinds. The Adventurer’s Guildhouse down here, located way over there, looked nice. It was sort of like the United Nations, both in size and in effect, for the whole ‘Adventurer’s Guild’ was more like a series of loosely affiliated franchises than any true monolith of power, and meeting here was about as good as meeting anywhere these days. Mostly, there were no meetings. Most adventurers just used their guildhalls as drinking and story spots. When the only threats to the world were the constant, low level ones that always assailed the people of Veird, there wasn’t much to do but business as usual. The only real organization that happened in that place was when real threats came about; the 9, 10, and 11-Star threats.

But Erick and House Benevolence took care of those ones these days. And since there were a lot fewer threats to the world these days, half of the Adventurer’s Guildhouse was empty.

The Dungeon Guild was absolutely packed, though. Looked like they were expanding, too—

And that was all Erick was able to see right now, for people were looking his way, and they were starting to freak out and get excited in unequal measure. Looked like more excitement than fear, but Erick could be wrong about that. He had been here for about 3 seconds so far, which was a decent enough response time. Could have been better, though.

“HOLY shit!” “FUCK is that who I—” “YES, that’s Flatt!” “The Guildmistress?” “No! The father the Wizard, you idiot!” “But isn’t he supposed to not be here?”

Erick smiled a little at that last line, because yes, he wasn’t supposed to be here. There wasn’t any official ruling or request for him to never come here, of course. But Erick had stepped away from this land because this was where Jane had decided to make her home. There had never been any official declaration of his reasoning for staying away, but people were not dumb.

But now that unspoken contract was broken, for Erick was making a public appearance.

That was because it was time to do some fathering.

Jane had been working with Melemizargo without telling him.

And probably for years!

Erick calmly walked toward the waystation filled with guards, smiled gently, and asked, “I haven’t been here in a long time. Got any problems you need a Wizard archmage to solve?” When everyone just stood there gobsmacked instead of answering, which was to be expected, Erick asked again, “Nothing at all? Surely there’s some crisis happening nearby that you’ve all heard about that needs actual solving, and soon?”

One brave traveler spoke up from the side, “They get some ol’ domainies encroaching on the north face!” The speaker was a young man with flour on his white apron, carrying what looked to be a whole bunch of paper-wrapped sandwiches. He had been caught up in his delivery to the waystation when Erick had appeared. The only reason he had spoken up was probably due to him being a Xoatist, what with that characteristic white-feather pin stuck on his chest, above his heart. Enthusiastically, he said, “All the ‘venturers talking ‘bout ‘em! Ain’t no one killin’ ‘em, and they need killin’! … Er… Mister Xoat, sir.”

Erick would have cringed at the ‘Xoat’ comment if he wasn’t making a statement of his own right now. As it was, he pointed north, asking, “That way?”

“Yes sir!”

Erick smiled and nodded, as Ophiels beyond the [Ward]s headed toward the north. “I’ll have those cleared up in a snap, but for now, I must depart.” Illumination crowded around Erick as he turned on his Sun Form. Instantly, the air shook as the entire node network of the city fought against his Domain, but Erick shook right back, tuning himself quieter, toning down his power to just the soles of his feet and boots. There was no need to break any [Ward]s, after all. Erick said, “A pleasure to meet you all. I’m sure to leave some monsters for those who want them, and I won’t stay long.”

And then Erick stepped lively, nodding at the intake zones of the Gatehouse, filled with people who all stared at him, as he bypassed all security by just stepping through another [Gate] of his own, opening directly on the large courtyard outside of the Gatehouse, near the train station. People outside stared. Some screamed. Some shouted for ‘Xoat Reborn!’. Erick nodded professionally, and then bypassed the train station, to step onto the roads leading into the rest of Adventurer City.

There was a fast lane, filled with traffic, most of it with people moving fast, using whatever abilities they used to move fast. And there was a car lane. A few vehicles were on that road; some floating Platform spells, some actual cars. Erick noticed a shiny blue car that sped along under electric power; it was one of the cars from Ooloraptoor Industries, the grass traveler nation to which Erick had bequeathed the electric engine and the differential. Erick was a little surprised to see that car down here, but the grass travelers were doing very well with their electric car production.

Erick smiled as he walked on. The node network was less stringent down here, and so Erick enveloped himself in light, and began walking at a rather relaxed, quick pace, headed toward the Dungeon Guildhouse. He was in no rush, and he was splitting his attention with Ophiel outside the city [Ward]s, to locate and kill monsters here and there. As Erick surprised hundreds of people on the roads, he also surprised guards posted on the north side of the cavern.

Those people readily recognized Ophiel’s [Luminous Beam]s, as Ophiel killed monsters inside the tunnel. There might be lots of dungeons all around, and monsters might take refuge in those places primarily, but there was still a lot of mana in the air out in the tunnel, and the bigger monsters were drawn to drink deep from that well, whenever they could. People noticed when monsters and Ophiel fought.

It would be a matter of moments before Jane was notified of his presence, if Poi didn’t tell her what was happening already.

Erick had brought up the topic of Jane working with Melemizargo over a week ago; eleven days! But she cut communication down to nil after that, and Erick had let her have her space. Surely, she would want to talk on her own time. Surely, she would tell her father about how she was secretly a PALADIN FOR MELEMIZARGO—

Erick calmed himself.

He wished Jane would have talked to him, but she had deflected. And now, since all the gods were on Erick’s case about FINDING THE CAUSE OF THE SUNDERING…

Erick breathed as he lightwalked down the road, keeping his mind even and calm. No need to get upset, Erick! Everything was fine, Erick. Jane was a perfectly responsible adult able to make her own decisions.

Right?

Right.

- - - -

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck,” Jane muttered as she closed her office door, having sent the last of her help away for the day. She couldn’t send everyone home, for the guildhouse had about 1300 workers, but she could certainly send home everyone that worked directly in her offices, who could possibly enable her father to truly know what she had been up to for the last few years. It wasn’t anything bad, but… Jane calmed herself. She squared her shoulders, and she prepared. “I knew this was coming eventually… I have prepared for this.”

And she had—

Jane froze.

Andri Lightwalker, one of the more enthusiastic converts to Xoatism, and the head of the local branch, rushed into her offices, having come from the main guildhouse like a man seeking salvation. Jane liked Andri, but Andri was not someone who she wanted talking to her father right now. In fact, he needed to go.

Jane stepped through the world, to stand right before Andri.

Andri saw Jane, his face lighting up as though he had found his salvation. “Jane! I heard your father is in town and already cleaning up problems! Would you mind terribly giving him this?” He pulled out a packet of paper, and held it forward. “It’s a list of problems that he can fix, if he desires, ranked several ways; in order of importance, in order of ease, in order of minimal disruption to the current political landscape, and otherwise.”

“… You’re not going to try and talk to him yourself?” Jane asked, taking the papers, concern over Andri’s presence rapidly changing into concern over the papers. She began reading.

“Oh my no!” Andri said, “He’s obviously here to see you, and I don’t want to be here for that.”

Jane finished reading the papers. There was a lot there, from the warehouse district problems with embezzlement and missing goods, to the exiled noble’s district with their unfounded claims of thefts from lower ranked adventurers, to the vanishing of people who go down to southside. Jane frowned a little at all of that. All of this was completely out of her jurisdiction, so she couldn’t act on any of it, but… Her father could, if he wanted. More than that, though...

Jane looked up to Andri. “How the fuck did all this stuff pile up so fast?”

Andri smiled wide. “All the world changes when the Wizard is out of his tower.”

Jane kept her face schooled. “Nothing is happening, Andri.”

“Sure sure.” Andri continued, “I’ll be here in Adventurer City for a long time to come, working the good work and fighting the good fight, but I would like to know if there is anything I need to be ready for. Anything at all you might feel the need to tell me, to watch out for, or whatever.”

Andri always knew more than he should, for though he was a human, he had an orcol’s sense for prognostication. He reminded Jane a lot of Teressa in that way, and he had even helped Jane to understand Benevolence a bit more than she would have otherwise.

Jane was no longer that angry girl who had fallen to Veird and become jealous of her father’s rise to power, but she had still needed distance from her father to really understand who ‘Jane’ was, on her own in this world. Andri’s certain brand of irreverence for her father, and also praise, had helped a lot. Other Xoatists saw Erick as a mortal divine, but Andri just saw the good work he had done, and that he continued to do. Jane appreciated that a lot about him.

Living in a land of warriors and archmages had helped a lot, too. There was a lot of magic and power down here in Adventurer City, but there were no kings. No ultimate authorities…

Or at least none that showed themselves.

Jane said, “I’m probably going away for a while. I’ve left instructions with others, but the teams are going to be delving without a leader. Look after them, will you?”

Andri stood strong. “I will do this, and more.” And then he asked, “Are you finally following your own Worldly Path?”

Jane smiled softly. “Not if I can help it.”

“If you can’t help it, then step strongly, Jane.”

Jane chuckled— And then she stopped all of that, and ordered, “You should get out of here, Andri.”

Andri grinned, and then he bowed. “Till I see you again. Good luck.”

Jane watched Andri depart.

And then she went back to her office.

Erick was already there, waiting for her.

When had he shown up? Jane had no fucking clue. The manasphere was devoid of answers, for her father was clearing it away just as fast as he made impressions on it; whatever happened here was under a veil of Privacy that no one would be able to break.

Which was good, Jane supposed.

“Hello, dad,” Jane said, a pit of dread opening up in her stomach, as Ophiels twittered around the room in greeting.

- - - -

Erick smiled, “Hello, Jane. I think I failed to notice how nice Andri is to you. Are you two in a relationship? Should I give him The Talk?”

Jane breathed deep, her father’s words catching her off-guard. “You’re in a fine mood today.”

“I am faking it!” Erick said, “There’s a lot going on right now that I am very worried about. By the way, I’ve finished about half the stuff on Andri’s list; the other stuff is political and I won’t touch that. You can solve it when you get back from our trip.”

Jane almost went to her chair, behind her desk, but then she decided she wanted a drink instead. She went to the decanters, poured herself one, and then poured another. She downed hers in a single gulp, then handed the extra to her father.

Erick took the glass and downed it in a show of solidarity.

Jane was already on-board with fighting whatever threat was coming their way, even though she had no idea of the specifics of that threat… Maybe. How much did she know, exactly? Erick had no idea. She probably knew a lot more of what Melemizargo planned, and Erick was rather eager to hear what those plans involved...

But for right now, they were just father and daughter, sharing a drink in solidarity, both of them occupying rather different places of power in the world, and both of them powerful in their own right.

In that moment —and many more besides— Erick was extremely proud of Jane. She had accomplished a lot. She almost looked the same as she did at 22, when they first fell to Veird together, in that car of hers. At 36 she had a few laugh lines on her face, and a strength in her body and spine that had always been there, but which had become fully developed with another decade of living in this land.

They’d get to the big topics soon. But first...

Erick threw her a softball, “How was your birthday this year?” He glanced over to her shelves, where Erick’s gift sat stacked with the others. “Did you read much of my gift?”

Jane smiled a little, then said, “I had a great party this year. Hizogard and Lyrical showed up. Their teams are doing great. They just headed out to join Ar’Cosmos’s push into the low Underworld, to secure the space under the Forest of Glaquin. Danaro is sick with worry over Hizogard’s absence, but he has the orphanage to worry about. They’ll all be fine.” Jane glanced to her shelves, where the 5-part scientific series ‘Magic of Earth’ sat, waiting for her to read. It was the second printing, done five years after the first, and expanded into two more volumes. Most of it was chemistry but a lot of it was about everything else that Erick and Jane had both brought with them to Veird. Erick had gotten her the most practical set, while his own copies, gifted to him by the author, were big things encrusted with gems and otherwise, and sitting on his own shelves back home. Jane said, “I started on the first one, but it’s way too… It reminds me a lot of when we first got here and I tried everything I knew to make magic, but none of it worked.”

Erick nodded, saying, “All that stuff does work, but not for everyone. Your Truth lay elsewhere.”

Jane smiled, chuckling.

Years ago, if Erick had said that, Jane would have gotten angry with him. But now she laughed instead. Erick loved to see that, his insides tumbling with warmth as he witnessed yet another point of proof that Jane had come into her own. Her Truth was that she could be anything she needed to be in order to overcome whatever she needed to overcome, and that Truth had served her well. But it wasn’t the ‘Truth of Lightsabers’ or all of her other smaller experiments with magic, there in the beginning.

Jane’s didn’t also lend itself to wide scale power, like Erick’s Truth had done for him.

“My Truth works well, for me,” Jane said. And then she looked at her father. “You want to talk about the search for the Sundering, now?”

“We’ll get to that. You’re on your Worldly Path, too?” Erick said, “I didn’t know that, either. When did you start?”

Jane winced and tried not to show it. “… Years ago. Kinda left that to the wayside, unwilling to take the final steps.”

“Don’t want a little dragon blessing from your father?”

Jane’s face grimaced a little, as Erick had struck the heart of the matter. “Melemizargo has told me that the moment I accept becoming a Benevolence Dragon, I’ll likely make my own Gatespace. So yeah, I left that Path to the side. I still have Draconic Inoculation, anyway, because I don’t want to be a dragon.”

Erick wanted to be angry about that. But instead he withheld all judgment about everything. He liked being actually present with his daughter, in her home space, and that hadn’t happened for over a year. Jane had come up to House Benevolence a few times, of course. But when she was up there she was a different person. Down here she was who she truly wanted to be. Erick didn’t judge her for that, at all.

But her words about not wanting to be a dragon hurt for a bunch of different reasons.

Jane was a Polymage, after all. Shouldn’t she want all of that power, that came from being a dragon, at her base? All of her Forms would benefit. But, no. It was that old problem, yet again. She was denying Erick’s help, in order to become her own person. For a multitude of reasons, some old, many new and heavy on the mind, Erick was mad about that.

He pulled back from his instinctive response, and instead spoke with measured words that he had been holding back for a very long time.

“Jane,” Erick began, “You’re strong enough to avoid many of the pitfalls of this world, and the danger of your own existence. But it pisses me the fuck off that you keep denying my assistance on such a basic, powerful matter. It’s really quite angering, you know. Or perhaps you don’t actually know, because I never tell you exactly how I feel. And so, I’m telling you now—”

“I know how you feel,” Jane said, firmly. “Do you have any idea how many nights I lay awake, thinking about what I could do with the power of a dragon? Every time I lose a team. Every time I have to go out and kill a rogue core. But then I hear stories about how a Benevolence Dragon ended up doing weird shit and ended up making the world a better place for it. Immolating and healing people for hours on end; it seemed like torture, but no, it was putrescent slugs. Shit like that.

“And I can’t do that to myself, dad. I already know what it’s like to lose myself to the monster, and I won’t ever let that happen. So as soon as you can make a dragon-type that doesn’t fugue-out and drop everything to go help a grandma halfway around the world get medical treatment for some soul-problem she didn’t even know she had, then I’m gonna continue fretting about how little power I actually have in this world. I will continue to deny your help in becoming a dragon.”

There was a lot there.

“… Okay. I withdraw my complaint. I don’t want to contribute to your loss of self. I didn’t even know that was a problem.” Erick knew that Jane was keeping stuff from him, but this? A crisis over the loss of self? This seemed like something she should have wanted to talk to him about… But she always kept her biggest problems away from him. Erick felt he had failed as a father at that moment. Of course Jane didn’t want to be a Benevolence Dragon. Maybe not any type of dragon at all. Erick softly asked, “When did you lose yourself to the monster?”

“It was years ago.” Jane looked away, saying, “Seven years ago, by now. I killed a dungeon core that was halfway to becoming Grand, and I had just gotten a spider form that I have since discarded. When I woke up, I was chewing on the leg of one of my teammates who had cut off her leg to escape me. She and I don’t talk much anymore because of that. She grows stuff on a farm, on the other side of the city.”

“I’m sure she must have known you had an issue. People have issues, and people forgive, too. And she’s not dead, right? Of course healing that rift isn’t as simple as an apology, for any act of using power against a friend can lead to disastrous relationship fallout. But did you apologize?”

“I did, at first, but… Never really followed up on that. There was another crisis in another dungeon.” Jane said, “You know how it is.”

“I do know how it is. I’m sorry that happened to you.”

Jane stayed silent, thinking.

Erick waited.

Jane said, “So we’re searching for the cause of the Sundering now.”

“You want to get right to that part of it? Not how you’re a paladin for Melemizargo?”

“I’m not technically his paladin. That would require an investiture of power, which I have not accepted.”

“Ta-may-toh, ta-mah-toh.”

“More like tomato-potato.” Jane said, “One is not like the other.”

Erick leveled his eyes at Jane.

Jane rolled her eyes in response.

“Fine. Moving on.” Erick said, “We’re going after the causes of the Sundering, searching out the Dark for the answers to all that. And it is going to be us, right? Melemizargo has dropped some hints about that, and you knew that blowing me off last time we talked would have caused me to come here, directly. Are the dungeons around here? Or are we going to Dungeon Island? I had plans to go to Dungeon Island long before this mess happened, but I’m not too sure about all that. All I know is I got about 24 visits from various priests of gods in the last 3 days, all wondering about what their gods are telling them. That’s to say nothing of the direct visits from Atunir, Rozeta, Koyabez, and Phagar, all wondering when I’m going to get started on this Benevolent Path.”

Jane took a moment, then she began, “We’re going to Dungeon Island. From there, I think Fallopolis and the other Shades are waiting for us. But we’re not going into any dungeons this time. We’re going into the Dark Itself… And since I have survived that and you have not… I guess I will be your guide.”

Jane had not wanted to say ‘guide’. She had been going in a very different direction than that, but then she pulled back, and gave Erick some sort of lie about ‘being his guide’. There was more to be worried about than that small lie, though.

Erick tried to contain his voice, saying, “It’s really fucked up that we’re doing this at all. I don’t care if Melemizargo thinks he can contain whatever horrors caused the Sundering. The Sundering shouldn’t be touched.”

“I’ve already seen glimpses of it. There in the Dark.”

Erick felt his heart beat hard. “… Ah.”

Jane said, “All of this dungeon stuff, from the very start… I didn’t know it at first. I did not know that what I was doing was preparing for this...” Jane was reluctant to speak on all that, so she deflected, “A decade ago, all I knew is that I could get real power inside a dungeon, and sometimes dungeons went bad, and those bad dungeons needed to be put down. Everything sort of worked out in that direction for me.” She touched her chest, and a part of her interior unfolded, revealing a transformed heart and lungs, and a network of mana veins running alongside her blood veins. There was no core in that empty center space, but her interior was almost exactly the same as Erick’s. And then, with a flex of her interior, that empty space next to her heart unfurled, like petals of darkness pulling away from light, revealing a spherical core made of prismatic brilliance. “I probably have half a million mana generation these days. It’s not Wizardry, but it’s among the most regeneration in the Dungeon Guild. Only Lyrical has more, and that’s only because she can continually delve into the Dark and destroy cores with song. She doesn’t have to use a sword, or claw, or get close at all.”

Lyrical was the orcol woman who Erick had originally sent out with Jane, over a decade ago, when Jane wanted to go exploring in the Underworld. She had been from Ar’Cosmos, along with Hizogard. Both of them, and also Danaro, a former shadeling, had eventually joined up with Jane, and helped, with House Benevolence’s efforts, to create the Dungeon Guild. Prince Sitnakov of Stratagold had originally been a part of that group, but he just never got back together with them after they all came back from their Underworld trip, just in time for the Dungeon Core fiasco. Ravan, their Mind Mage, had also come back to House Benevolence after that return. Right now, Ravan was probably with some rookie group, helping them to get better at being adventurers; Erick wasn’t sure.

“How is your whole old group?” Erick asked, backing up the discussion to easier topics.

“They’re doing alright. Lyrical and Hizogard are off doing what they need to do. Danaro is at the orphanage. Ravan was here three months ago, where she gathered up some more rookies and took them back out to help them level and learn about themselves. Those guys are on a long track about 2k down from the Surface. They should be back in a year or two.” Jane suddenly remembered something, but it was a minor thing. It was still something to delay the big conversation, though, so she asked, “Do you know if Sitnakov ever got around to visiting Killzone in Ar’Kendrithyst?”

Both Sitnakov and Killzone were adamantium wrought, meaning they were wrought royalty. But though they were both shaped like orcols, they were not both from Stratagold.

Only the royalty from Stratagold was both orcol-shaped and adamantium. Most of the royalty from the other Geodes were human, incani, half-incani/half-human or dragonkin. A full 60% of all royal wrought were human-shaped. But also, wrought would change their shape, if they went through enough trauma.

Killzone always cleared out when any other adamantium wrought came around, even when those other wrought weren’t orcol-shaped.

There was some connection between Killzone and Stratagold, but Erick had never found out that connection.

Erick said, “They perpetually circle each other whenever Sitnakov visits Anhelia’s city. I think they have people who tell them when the other is around, just so they never run into each other. But First Prince Abarnikon and Second Prince Sitnakov still have to visit their neighbor Geode from time to time, and that includes Anhelia’s major neighbors; Spur, Kal’Duresh, New Frontier, New Brightwater.” Erick shrugged. “I know the Stratagolds have met with Silverite several times, but if Killzone was ever a part of those meetings, I haven’t heard of it.”

Jane gave a wan smile, as she said, “Dammit. I was hoping you’d know that secret.”

“I’m rather sure that Killzone is not Third Prince Chernom Stratagold; the one that died.” Erick said, “But as for the rest of it, I have no idea. And I never pried, either.”

Jane frowned a little. “Sitnakov came around here a few times in the last years, but never for long enough.”

… There was something in that little frown that… Was peculiar.

Erick suddenly realized—

Erick’s eyes went wide. “You like Sitnakov?”

Jane froze. And then she opted to speak the truth, “… I do, yeah. We had a short fling one summer, but… Never materialized past that. I think he’s waiting for me to prove myself as immortal before… Well you know how it is.”

Erick let that new bit of information wash over him. And then he said, “Yeah. I do know how it is. A lot of immortals won’t touch anyone who they think might not be around in ten years, or forty. Numbers vary. I’ve had a few conversations with Quilatalap about that.”

“Did you two ever talk about getting married?”

Erick smiled softly. “We did. He’s not the marrying kind of man.”

“Sorry, dad. I know you wanted that.”

Erick shook his head a little, saying, “It’s fine. Thank you, though, Jane.” And then he affected a happy look, saying, “In good news: Kiri got her family out of Greensoil. Took some paying off of rather usurious debts, but Odaali was rather helpful in paving the way between the lending house and Kiri’s family. When her father and mother visited the cloudhouse to meet me in private, Mister Flamecrash actually managed to get half-mad at me for pushing them out of those debts.” Erick smiled at that memory. “Took him a lot of guts to do that. Kinda faltered near the end, though.”

Jane smiled. “They actually took Kiri’s mage name?”

“Oh yes. That happened years ago when Kiri’s power became apparent for all to see. They weren’t nobles at the time, but they got honorary noble status through Cyril’s direct decree. So now they’re the ‘Flamecrashes’.” Erick excitedly added, “And Teressa is expecting, now!”

Jane laughed. “Good for her!”

“All it took was a little [Reincarnation]… Ahh. Speaking of which, I have another one of those days coming up next week. It’s around 3200 people this time. A lot of people are nervous about whatever is coming down the line.” Erick said, “The Prophesized Storm is about 4 or 8 months out; no one can really tell, because the Benevolent Sky is cloudy. A lot of smaller stuff is coming together, though, especially with this Sundering study… Rozeta told me she was worried about Primal Lightning again.”

Jane sat calmly, thinking deeply.

Erick said, “You’ve already seen echoes of this coming threat, haven’t you.”

Jane returned to what she had started, and failed to speak upon. “The first time I killed a dungeon core was like that time I killed the Amalgamation Slime; the Soul Ooze. It was a slime, though. Not an ooze. It had a core. …When I killed it in Melemizargo’s name, I felt the world shift. It was all a part of discovering my Truth. The final step, I guess.

“And killing every dungeon core since then has been yet another step.

“I don’t experience it often, but I see a lot when I’m floating there in the Dark, where phantoms of the past and nightmares hold back absolute death, just long enough for me to flash around my team and keep them safe. And then it’s just me, a small ship in the middle of nothing, holding onto precious cargo to make sure they survive the trip out of the Dark.

“I’ve been in the Actual Dark before, dad.

“Not just the Near Dark.

“I only lived because Melemizargo allowed it.

“When that happens, and the shadows part, I see glimpses of other worlds past dark clouds. I see worlds burning. And worlds growing. Wizards standing on the precipice of armies and then wiping those armies out. And I see Wizards raising armies, to use them as pawns in intergalactic warfare. I see Creation, Destruction, and both at the same time. And I see weird, intangible spaces, a lot. It’s those last spaces that are the most dangerous.

“Almost everyone goes mad when they see those hidden spaces… My first experience with one of those hidden spaces was…

“It was like seeing the Moon Reachers that one time. That first time. I told you about that.

“I was a spider in the dark forest, watching the long-armed creatures walk through the moonlit land, casually plucking unsensing wildlife into their arms, to rip off legs and otherwise, torturing them while also trying to keep them alive, to eat them whole and wiggling. And screaming.

“I didn’t see those empty spaces in the Dark very often. I don’t ever see them alone, though. I only really notice them when a member of my team goes raving mad, and then I’m able to actually notice the hole in the Dark where there should be something, but instead there’s nothing. The others could see those spaces and go mad at them, but I could not.

“No one so far has been able to tell me what they’ve seen in those hollows. They all forget afterwards. Even had Ravan come with me once, to try and understand what was there. Had to go through seven dungeon core busts before she experienced that madness. But when we came back, and she recovered, she said she saw nothing. She was able to [Mind Heal] herself, so it wasn’t that bad.

“I have never gone mad, though. Probably because of my Truth.

“It’s honestly…” Jane paused, and then said, “It’s probably safer if you let me do a real exploration of the Dark. If you stay away, and do nothing at all. I’ll probably get a shadeling or three to follow me into core breaks and then… I’m not sure what else will happen.”

Erick took that in. And he thought.

Jane waited.

Erick ventured, “Based on previous happenings when it comes to Path-like ways, and looking at our timeline to the future… We probably end up seeing one of these hollows in the Dark and I end up going mad for a while, until someone subdues me. This is likely the cause of the Prophesized Storm that will hit Storm’s Edge.”

Jane had no reaction, but to simply nod.

She had seen the coming timeline, and figured the same thing.

Erick asked, “What sort of experience is it, for you, when you see the nothing? Or is it ‘The Nothing’? A proper noun?”

“I’m honestly not sure if it’s a real thing, or not. The Dark has lost more memories of the Old Cosmology than he has retained, causing a lot of holes in those memories. And not everyone has the same sort of freakout when they see those holes in the world. I would not call it a ‘Nothing’, because I don’t think it's a singular thing.”

Erick said, “Explain the different sorts of freakouts.”

“Well… There’s always a freakout for a new person, whenever I take someone new into a core smashing. Raised heart rate and wide eyes and catatonia, in some cases. If they make it out of the first core breaking, then that usually doesn’t happen to them again, and they can make it onto another team. But I always take people on their first break, because I can pull them back from those minor incidents.

“Those minor incidents usually involve them diving headfirst into the Dark, screaming about how they see something they want. In those cases I can see what they’re chasing when they see it, too. Usually it’s an idealized life, or a dead family member. Lotta dead loved ones in the Dark, calling for their living people to join them.

“Beyond those first incidents, people sometimes freakout later. It’s those later freakouts that are usually caused by the nothings.

“When people see the holes in the Dark, some people rip out their eyes and smash their ears. I’m pretty sure that’s seeing something they don’t want to see.

“Then there are the holes in the Dark where people just start screaming in terror.

“Then there’s a pure outpouring of absolute love. Those are among the weirder ones. It’s… Love can be a physical force when it’s in the Dark. It’s like a softness that calms and pulls…

“Then there are the angry nothings. People throw spells into the Dark when they see those nothings.

“Sometimes there’s a disgust-reaction so strong it makes people spew from every orifice.

“Four times now, four different people turned nudist for an entire week. Not sure what that one was about. They couldn’t tell me except that clothes just felt bad on them.

“Unknown zealotry has stuck around for a while, too.” Jane said, “Pretty sure those hollows were about Evil Gods, or something like that.”

Jane sat still, and Erick thought.

Erick said, “I agree that the hollows aren’t all of the same sort of thing.” He added, “And I think you’re physically incapable of seeing what’s down there.” He pulled the All-Seeing Eye from around his neck, saying, “But you could see what’s there. The problem with that, is that if you saw what was there, you would go crazy, too. I highly doubt you’re actually immune to it, Jane. The Dark is just protecting you. If you actually saw the horrors, then you’d go crazy.

“So, to me, and how I see this working out best, is that if I go into the Dark, and you join me as backup and to pull me out of it, because no matter how much I might turn mad or crazy, I highly doubt that I would ever wish to hurt you.” Jane almost objected, but Erick wasn’t finished. “And yet, that’s just my first instinct, and it might end up causing the Prophesized Storm. Truth is, we’re both talking without any true understanding of what searching for the Sundering actually means. All of that is up in the air, and I am sure that Melemizargo has some better words for how he actually wants to do this. And so, since I originally started this whole thing as a way to reseal Yggdrasil, I know where Melemizargo awaits. We continue on with the Path.” Erick stood. “We are going to Dungeon Island.”

“… Just like that?” Jane asked, “Have you finished with the list from Andri?”

“I’m not doing the semi-political stuff, but every physical thing from monster hunting to putting up a [Terraforming] for fresher local food at the farms, is done.” Erick asked, “Care to show me one of your favorite eateries before we head off for a month of Dark delving, or whatever?”

Jane stood, her shoulders tense, as she said, “I would love to do that. I need to swing by the house, too.”

Erick suddenly took Jane into his arms, saying, “I missed you.”

Jane froze again, and then she chuckled lightly onto Erick’s shoulder, her body relaxing. She suddenly held him tight. “I missed you, too. [Telepathy] isn’t enough.”

“Not enough at all,” Erick said, as a few tears fell.

- - - -

The next two hours were exactly what Erick was missing in his life. His daughter, there with him, or rather he with her, both of them eating at a restaurant where Jane ordered food that was way too spicy, but which Erick braved anyway, much to Jane’s gentle laughter. And then they were at Jane’s house, and she showed him around. She had a lot of hunting trophies, like the horn of a unicorn, but smaller than the one Erick had once eaten to get his [Lightwalk], and then there were full sets of Elemental Essence armor in every primary flavor. They kinda reminded Erick of power ranger suits, and Jane laughed, because yes, that’s exactly what she was going for when she made them, just because she could.

She showed off her enchanting workrooms, and her Familiar Form experimental rooms. And then she showed off some Familiar Forms that Erick had not seen before, proud of what she had made out of the hundred separate parts of different creatures and different monster Abilities.

Jane became a large grey spider with metallic everything, including a tank-like turret on her back, where her entire silk production system had been transformed into artillery workings. She was proud of her Form, but her tone was suddenly less than strong, “It’s not [Luminous Beam], of course, but it’s pretty good.”

Erick was smiling the entire time, extremely happy to see Jane be happy, but he had noticed that while she had been ‘the strong guilder’ in her offices, here, as they got ready to actually move on to Dungeon Island, she was a bit lesser, almost like there was a regression happening. Perhaps she was overwhelmed with this Sundering search, handed to them by Melemizargo and the Relevant Entities of the Script. Erick knew that he was feeling pretty weird about the whole thing, too. Or maybe Jane was getting weird about being near her father after all this time away. Jane only ever came home on holiday, and Erick only ever visited her for an hour or two at a time.

That was probably what was happening here. Jane was not regressing, for she had come into her own and was maintaining that power. But she knew who her father was, and so did every single other person she dealt with for her entire adult life.

Erick wanted to raise her up as much as he could, but she would still only ever accept so much help.

Erick said, “Your physical abilities are going to be much more important than my possibly-failing magic when we’re in the Dark. I’m going to be relying on you in a lot of ways, and I want you to rely on me in similar ways, okay?”

Jane stared at Erick with two great big grey eyes, and a lot of smaller ones, and then she transformed back into her human self, her clothes rapidly sliding back onto her body. She smiled softly, saying, “You can count on me, dad.”

“Good! Because I don’t want to go polymorphing unless I can help it.”

Jane laughed. “Don’t go telling me that you don’t prefer being a dragon. I’m calling bullshit on that right now.”

Erick mocked offense. “Do you know many dragons? We’re not all the same.”

“I do, actually. Every single one says that they prefer being a dragon. Even the Benevolence ones.”

“… Well that’s weird of them—”

“Bullshit,” Jane exclaimed.

“Okay fine. Being a dragon is a great experience, but it distorts how one views the world. All that inherent power distances you from other people.” Erick added, “I really do like eating food as a dragon, though. Tastebuds all the way down.”

Jane smiled, highly satisfied that she had successfully called her father on his bullshit. “Spiders get a lot of satisfaction from eating, too, but it’s not very tasty. I do and also do not like being able to taste things with my feet. A blood slime has a lot going for it in that direction. You can make your entire body into tastebuds that only work how you want them to work.”

“A blood slime? Seriously, Jane?”

Jane smiled, asking, “Are we going incognito into Dungeon Island? Like you did with Greensoil and Storm’s Edge?”

“Nope. Not this time. Why? Were you looking forward to doing this that way?”

“Heck no! I was gonna talk you out of it if that’s how you wanted to do this.” Jane asked, “It’s just you and me?”

“Correct.”

“Good. No one else needs to be subject to whatever horrors we’re about to face.”

Erick felt hope kindle in his heart as he heard his daughter’s conviction. She had grown a lot. Both of them had. And now was the time to test themselves against the greatest evil to ever befall Veird; the Sundering. Hopefully that great evil was easily found and contained in the depths of the Dark.

“I would have preferred if everyone would have moved past the trauma of the Sundering,” Erick said, “But I suppose when I’m a thousand years old I’ll have some deep trauma of my own to never get over.”

Jane chuckled at that.

Ophiel twittered brightly.

And Yggdrasil popped into the room, his big [Scry] eye looking rather small, as he said, “I’m not sure I want to be unsealed if it means endangering anyone, father. I rescind my request to be unsealed.”

Erick was a bit stunned by that.

Which is why Jane was able to respond first. “The Relevant Entities have spoken, and more importantly so has the Dark.” As though she was giving a solid speech that she had rehearsed, and only just now needed to use, Jane stated, “This is happening. You need not be unsealed at the end if you don’t desire it, but this is happening, Yggdrasil.”

Erick almost said something—

But Yggdrasil glared at Jane, and spat, “I’m sorry I ever asked!”

And then Yggdrasil vanished.

Erick said to Jane, “I need to talk to him—”

“I know. See you afterward.”

Erick nodded, then stepped through a portal, into Benevolence.

- - - -

Erick stepped out of Benevolence, into a hole in the ground, and then he stepped through a few more intervening spaces, before he finally stepped down onto the serpentine roots of Yggdrasil, deep in the Underworld of Veird. He was now about 1,500 kilometers below the southern pole of the planet. This was a private location known only to a few, because even inside Benevolence Yggdrasil didn’t have that much privacy. Other people were always looking at the Benevolent Sky. This place, however large of a cavern it was with water inlets and light everywhere, was near-absolute in its secrecy, because Yggdrasil was able to keep it that way, and so he did.

“What’s wrong, Yggdrasil?” Erick asked, as he sat down on Yggdrasil’s white roots, looking up at his largest son.

A chill wind blew, as was normal in this area. There was no [Scry] eye in front of Erick just yet; just the light of Yggdrasil, and the coolness of the air.

Erick waited.

Yggdrasil’s eye appeared. “… I might have messed up, asking to be released from your soul.”

“You didn’t mess up at all.” Erick said, “Everyone wants what they want out of life, and you want to be your own person. It’s a perfectly reasonable request. When I made my own 100 year request for a divine seal on you, before you were born, that was a reasonable request, too, because none of us had any idea what Melemizargo would be like in the following years. If his sanity would hold. I think it is holding, but I also think he’s up to some shit.

“And I know we can’t hold him back forever.

“He’s cramped in this world, just like you’re cramped inside of me, and you want to be let out. It’s all perfectly reasonable to want your own freedom, Yggdrasil. Please do not think that you are doing anything wrong.” Erick said, “I knew this request of yours was coming for a very long time, and I think Melemizargo is just taking advantage of this, like gods do sometimes. They probably all knew this was coming eventually. And that’s because of course you want to be free.”

Yggdrasil listened, staring intently, his eye seeming to shine as Erick tried, and seemed to succeed, at validating him.

Erick continued, “And Melemizargo wishes to be free, too. Perhaps part of that freedom is the freedom in knowing what had killed the previous Cosmology, so that he can prevent that from ever happening again. That’s a perfectly reasonable stance to take, too.

“And I suppose that there’s never going to be an ‘actually good time’ to venture into that horror zone. So now, with all the stability we have and with Kiri being my backup— And Ezekiel, too… I suppose this is good enough for them to risk opening new worlds. And of course, you’ve proven yourself as a capable person, working that fish farm by Treehome, and helping people whenever they come to you.” Erick said, “So the only real question is: Do you feel comfortable being your own person, Yggdrasil? Do you feel comfortable, knowing that Melemizargo and others will be using you to open new worlds, if they can?”

“… I know I can stand strong against the storm... But I know that a storm is coming, father, and...” Yggdrasil said, “And I don’t actually feel secure in anything, father. When you were gone, I now recognized that time as a time of frozen winter. Nothing really happened.

“But now that you’re ‘back’, I feel like the ground shifted, and land feels good to grow in again. I want to poke my roots deep and grow taller. But I’m not sure where to grow, or how to grow.

“Maybe I want to be ‘independent’? That might be the word. Years ago you told me that you didn’t want me overseeing any work with House Benevolence, because you didn’t want to force that obligation on me. But I want an obligation, father. I want to be more than I am.” Softer, “People are telling me that they don’t trust me to be myself, and I want to prove that I am capable of being my own person.”

Erick wasn’t quite sure where to begin with all of that, but he found a place soon enough. “If you want to tell me who is talking bad about you, and if it’s a problem I can fix, I will fix it. But people talk bad about me all the time. I try to ignore it. Have you talked to anyone else about this?”

Yggdrasil strained as he said, “Gnowmi tells me to ignore them, too. But it’s hard.”

“I understand that. It is very hard to ignore the haters, especially when they start speaking falsehoods, and accusing you of preparing to do the worst to all of them.”

“Yes!” Yggdrasil said, “They think I want to kill them in their sleep! I have no idea how it started, but…” Yggdrasil turned away, then he turned back. “It’s tough.”

Erick nodded. “It is tough.” He asked, “Have you thought about how you want to prove that you’re capable of being your own person?”

“I’m not sure how. I like the fishery, but that’s not much proof at all.”

Erick understood.

Yggdrasil wanted to be his own person, but he also wanted people to like him. He probably had the Arbors at Treehome telling him how he should not try to please everyone, and Erick had said those exact words, too, but Yggdrasil was still young, and so he was still worried about things like that. His worries were valid, though, because if people didn’t like him, they would try to kill him, as they had already tried before.

Perhaps he needed more political experience?

Erick offered, “How about the political track at Candlepoint University? You could take courses there. But you’ve been watching me for over ten years, so that’s probably just as good of a political education as otherwise.” As Erick spoke his first suggestion, Yggdrasil went through a few unsure emotions, so Erick continued, “And yet, actually getting certified in political theory might help. You could try to test out of certification programs here and there. See how it goes. See what critical thinking theories you might be missing, that you can learn.

“You could also hold office hours, like I do. I can set up an office for you in House Benevolence that you can work through. Get you some assistants for guidance and otherwise.

“You could even try something as simple as making a life for yourself in some location, using only the money and magic you make in that life to get by. It will teach you a lot about how normal people live, and that’s an important skill to have, so that you don’t lose touch with the people you protect—”

“That one,” Yggdrasil said. “I’ll do that one.”

Erick nodded. “Okay. I’ll help you set that up—”

“I want to set it up myself.”

Erick smiled a little, saying, “That’s fine, too, but that’s not a public thing, and only when you’re in the public eye can you influence public opinion. If you want people to stop talking bad about you, or to at least get to know you so they won’t just listen to the uninformed opinions of others, then you gotta have a public presence. You gotta put yourself out there for interactions, Yggdrasil. I suggest you consider the public offices in House Benevolence.”

“… Okay. I will do that. I’ll get an office.” Yggdrasil stated, “By myself.”

Erick smiled softly, and said, “Okay. Then talk to Zolan and Kiri, and do not take on too much work. I trust you, Yggdrasil.”

“… I wish you would trust me less.”

A sledgehammer to the face would have been less upsetting.

Yggdrasil saw Erick’s reaction, his wide eyes and stilled breath, and spoke louder, “I don’t know what I’m doing, father! I’m just growing big, and that’s all! I’m barely able to talk to people. I’m not sure if some people are taking advantage of me or not! I don’t know what I am doing anywhere at all!”

Yggdrasil cut himself off there, unsure how to continue at all.

Erick softly, seriously, said, “No one knows what they’re doing, Yggdrasil. Everyone is just basing their actions on their own imagined view of the world. For there is no real Truth above Truth. Every social interaction is every imagined reality that people keep in their heads interacting with other peoples’ imagined realities. We’re all just learning how to navigate each other’s figments as best we can… And I’m not sure how to help more than I already am.” Erick felt it was finally time for the father-offspring talk. He had given this one to Jane a while ago, when she was 17. She probably only grasped the surface words back then. The specifics between that interaction and this one were wildly different, but Yggdrasil was in that same boat right now. Erick said, “I’m just a person, same as you. Same as Jane, same as Ophiel. For all my power and ability to see the future, and ability to change the future, I’m only as strong as I am in any given situation. I have no ultimate power to make other peoples’ choices for them. Sure, I have a [Blessing of Empathy], and [Reincarnation], and you have those too, but I know when to use them and when not to. Mostly, I don’t use power against others, because I wouldn’t want power used against me.

“And I make mistakes, but then I try to fix them later.

“You’re going to make mistakes, and you’re going to try and fix them later.

“That’s what life is.

“But learning opportunities abound! You’re young enough and not trying to oversee too much that you are allowed to make mistakes, and the consequences will be acceptable. Those consequences will rip your heart out and pain you for a very long time, but you’ll heal, and you’ll do what you can to fix those consequences.” Erick said, “That’s what I mean when I say I trust you.

“But if you’re looking for learning opportunities… Do you want to come to Dungeon Island with us? Make a body for yourself? Come with your sister, younger brother, and I, and see what the Dark wants of us all?”

Yggdrasil’s eye hovered there as Erick’s words hung in the air. He thought. And Erick waited. That’s what the big conversations were sometimes. A lot of waiting. A lot of thinking.

And so, Erick waited.

Yggdrasil asked the same question he had at the beginning, “Is wanting to be myself a big mistake?”

“No. That’s not a mistake at all, Yggdrasil. You’ll make a lot of mistakes, but being your own person will not be one of them. I can only suggest that you try to be the person that others can look up to, and rely upon. That’s who I try to be.”

“… Okay.” Yggdrasil added, “I… I don’t want to visit Dungeon Island right now. I want to have an office in House Benevolence… And I think I do want some arcanaeum certification tests.”

Erick smiled and nodded. Yggdrasil was figuring it all out, and trying to be independent more and more with each passing day. Erick hoped Yggdrasil wouldn’t become as independent-minded as Jane… And yet, Yggdrasil needed to be that independent and more.

This was for the best.

Except.

Erick said, “I would like to be there for you at the beginning, to help you on your path, Yggdrasil. That’s what fathers do.”

Yggdrasil’s voice was full of relief. “Let’s talk to Zolan together.”

“Sounds good to me.”

A quick step through a few [Gate]s landed Erick back at House Benevolence.

Once there, Erick spoke with Zolan and Yggdrasil, laying out how he understood Yggdrasil’s desires to prove himself to the world at large, and then Erick left them to it.

- - - -

Dungeon Island was not the original name for the largest of Quintlan’s three Australia-sized islands, located to the south west of the main continent. They were originally called the Three Sisters, and from largest to smallest they were named Infamy, Villainy, and Depravity. Before that, they were just one island, known as ‘Glorious Land’. There was no hint of that Glorious Land of 1,100 years ago, back before the Fall of Quintlan. The final death throes of the major dynasties of the last major survivors of the Sundering were filled with so very many horrors, not the least of which was the cracking of the Glorious Land into three different islands.

Different gods blamed each other, and also Melemizargo, but in the end it was just some mortal archmage who cracked the world and rerouted an upward waterways right up through the center of the Glorious Land, washing away much of that land, separating it into three different parts.

All of that destruction happened over 1,100 years ago, though, so aside from how the mountain ranges of all three islands were shaped away from the Font in the center, and some of the formations of the inner beaches showed ancient destruction, no hint of that cataclysm remained. All had been wiped clean, and then allowed to regrow wild.

Before the Teleport Lock, and from the sky, each land was so very similar to the other, that if one didn’t take care to track the sun and truly know where one was, then one might get lost down there. And that would be dangerous. Just like on continental Quintlan, these jungles and mountains and fields were full of death. Most of it ooze-related. Even so, people still braved these lands to delve into ancient strongholds, or to make new strongholds for use to hide out from the world. These islands were good places to hide, if you could succeed against the oozes, for [Teleport] used to be able to get people around these lands well enough. But ever since the Teleport Lock, the only truly safe spaces here were on the coast, in the cities that had only popped up in the last ten years. Whatever small measure of civilization anyone had made inside the islands, after the Teleport Lock went up, were gone.

And dungeons were everywhere.

But thanks to Erick and Jane’s spearheading of the Dungeon Guild, and thanks to the need for dungeon research, Infamy had been taken back from the oozes, and while people started setting up cities, Erick went on and cleared the other two islands and then much of Quintlan of oozes. Shade Hollowsaur and Treant did a lot of the major lifting on ooze eradication, of course, along with Zenipeq Frostflower, of the Fractured Citadel Frostflower, who was one of Erick’s first Benevolence Dragons. Zenipeq was still up in her frozen tower in central Quintlan, but the two Shades were… somewhere. Probably around Dungeon Island, and Ascendant Mountain in the Center.

Erick wasn’t sure right now, but he’d find out soon enough.

Much more varied horrors inhabited all of those lands, from shadowolves to spiders and murderous snails, all burrowing into un-mastered dungeons and then erupting in strength to go assault more dungeons, or to be assaulted themselves, and fight back or die. Dungeons broke all the time across this land, and people tried to make new, permanent dungeons all the time, too. The dungeons that succeeded were the ones overseen by people, and they became world-famous for the power that one could gain inside of them. But getting to those dungeons was to take your life in your hands, and step into the deadly forests, full of threats unknown. Every few months it seemed like a whole different ecosystem of monsters flourished and floundered in this land of jungles and death.

At least it wasn’t all oozes anymore.

… Erick had done what he could do, long ago.

Erick wasn’t a miracle worker— Not most of the time, anyway. And miracles were overrated. What was much more impressive, to Erick anyway, was the continued march of people toward civilization, and the drive to maintain in the face of death and destruction. That particular culture was alive and thriving here, under the guide of the Dungeon Guild, and the people who killed monsters.

Stepping through a [Gate], onto the white stone of Aniduun’s gatestation, Erick felt that where he had stopped, other people had picked up the work, and continued with enthusiasm. One of those people stood right beside him. Jane looked confident in public, wearing her grey and black Dungeon Guild outfit. Personally, Erick thought she exposed too much skin around the neck area, but she was usually technically nude out there when she was in a [Polymorph] form anyway, so it was what it was.

Erick wore white and black, as per normal protocols. Ophiel flitted on his shoulder, in the semi-organized shape of a crow with two or three pairs of wings, depending on what he felt like having, and around three eyes. Seven— No; nine eyes right now, though.

A hundred spires of varying heights and a thousand shorter buildings dotted the land, packed together into a minor metropolis 20-ish kilometers wide, ten kilometers inland, and ten more out to sea. Fishing farms floated out there, while vegetable farms grew inland. A river flowed north of the city, coming out of the mountains, and hitting the ocean in a deluge of white water. That river was the Westside River, and a lot more than just water traveled on that river.

Aniduun was built upon the southern coast of a large crescent harbor, south of the Westside River, facing the Duun Ocean, which was very much the largest ocean in the world. Here at this latitude, just like over at Oceanside, the wind blew in from the west, bringing with it a secondary ocean of mana that washed directly into this tamed land. Most of that river of mana followed the path of least resistance, which meant following the wide river, into the island. That river was the ‘monster road’ for much of this area.

Just a simple river couldn’t direct the massive flows of an entire ocean, though, or even a simple part of it, because mana always simply followed the path of least resistance. And so, just like with Everbless sculpting Storm’s Edge’s mana down monster roads, the people of Dungeon Island had a similar solution, but vastly different in execution. Dungeon Island actually had the original solution; Everbless had copied it.

For Aniduun was filled with a node network and defensive spellwork, too, just like all the rest of the major cities of the world. The network here supported massive, perpetually-cast [Force Wall]-type magics all throughout the land, and the manasphere rushed thick against those sculpted panes of Force.

The node network here also did their societal-protections different from everyone else, creating one of the most unique city-wide defenses found on Veird, because the people who lived here were special and simple Denial spells did not work on them. Aniduun was the ‘City of Ten Thousand Cores’, named that way because this area boasted the most amount of people with cores of anywhere on the planet, except for Shadow-controlled lands, like the lich-filled Fractured Citadels, or New Brightwater with all its shadelings.

Creating the node network here had been a mess and a half, and it continued to be a mess and a half. Cores were among the only ways that people retained power when under anti-magic influences, and with how all the people here delved dungeons, and got more true mana creation/regeneration, a vast majority of these people were able to make cores, and thus ignore most normal Denial spellwork to a certain degree.

Some of these people had become pariahs in their original lands, because they couldn’t be controlled anymore. Lotta humans from Greensoil for that reason. This land had its fair share of exiles from Nelboor, too, for that same reason. Former Cultists and current Cultists. The place looked like Candlepoint, really.

Erick kinda loved it here, for much the same reasons as he loved Candlepoint and all his normal haunts, but this was Jane’s space, and so he had stayed away for the most part.

And now people were noticing him and Jane. Took them a bit longer here than at Adventure City. 5 seconds as opposed to 3. Guards at the waystation focused on Jane, first, because she was the most recognizable and she spent a lot of time here. And then they recognized Erick and Ophiel, because they were Erick and Ophiel.

Jane glanced Erick’s way, wondering if she would be allowed to be in charge here.

Erick easily said, “It’s your show, Jane. Let’s see you run it.”

Jane nodded and walked forward. As guards suddenly walked around corners and stared openly, most of them not knowing what to do because The Apparent King was here, too. So Jane commanded their attention, giving orders that were easily followed. They might not know what to do with Erick being here, but they certainly knew what to do with Jane, and that was to obey.

Soon, Erick and Jane were out on the streets, and telepathic messages unfurled from every person all around. Neither Erick or Jane had called ahead, informing anyone that they’d be coming here, but this was a land used to emergencies. They adapted.

- - - -

The Dungeon Guildhouse of Aniduun was like the courthouse of Spur, or Candlepoint, or like the king’s castle in Storm’s Edge. It was not just a guildhall; it was a place of business and governance, for the land here wasn’t under the control of any one nation. Or any nation at all, really. These cities were research lands under the power of House Benevolence. A power which Erick never flexed.

In Aniduun’s case, their guildhouse was also a fortress, located on the north side of the city, overlooking the river, the city, and the ocean. It provided a major staging ground for all sorts of defensive measures against the monsters and dangers of this land. The city behind the guildhouse had only grown as large as it had because more and more people kept coming out here; most of them adventurers, looking to get back into the ‘killing monsters’ business.

So it was damned busy, all the time.

Erick and Jane managed to get past the wide open gates of the guildhouse, into the massive courtyard, before the guildmaster appeared in a flash of golden light, upon the stone stairs leading up into the main building. He had been waiting for him, and he had cleared out much of the people who would be in this courtyard to start with, but some people remained, probably because they just didn’t believe what was going to happen.

Baxter Swampwalker smiled brightly, throwing his arms wide, shouting, “Welcome back to the Island!”

A good ten people were in the courtyard, either talking with their small groups or caught between two different places, when Baxter shouted. Not too many people were alarmed by his shout. But then they saw Jane and Erick. There were some pratfalls. Everyone ignored those pratfalls except for the friends of those people, who quietly poked fun at the fallen, or helped them to their feet. Two people even mumbled that they didn’t believe it, which earned them even more ribbing from their friends.

Jane strode forward, uncaring for circumstance or decorum, as one does in places like this, and said, “Good to be back, Baxter. We’re here to see the state of the Island, and then we’re heading on.”

Baxter was a tall, strong man of blonde hair and barely-tanned skin, who anyone would be forgiven for instantly assuming was human, but he had incani blood in him; he was a demi. His eyes were unnaturally red-gold and he had tiny blonde nubs for horns which were mostly hidden by his hair. Those red-gold eyes flashed with joy as Jane spoke of staying for a little bit. He said, “Things are going great, far as I know. Come on in, though!” And then he turned and eyed Erick, smiling even more. “It’s good to see you, too, sir.”

Erick smiled a little, saying, “Jane is in charge today; I’m just a guest.”

Baxter’s eyebrows went up. And then he made a play, as he usually did. “So that means that Jane can talk to the talkers, and you and I can go check out a nice cafe by the water? There’s a new one with live music.”

Baxter was an incorrigible flirt who had absolutely destroyed marriages and other relationships in the past. But he was also one of the few archwarriors/archmages in the world, and capable of getting away with that sort of thing either through pure power, or through his stupidly handsome face, or because of the rest of him. Still, though, more than once Baxter had had a boot thrown at him from a disgruntled spouse as he exited a bedroom window in the early morning hours. Erick had personally tried to frighten him off with a transformation into his draconic form, when Baxter went a little too far with his flirts.

Baxter had seemed to enjoy that attempt at intimidation, though.

Erick had a much simpler way of dealing with Baxter these days. “I still have a boyfriend, Baxter.”

“He can join us.”

“… Ah. So that method no longer works on you. Why not?”

Jane had walked past Baxter, smiling a little big as she left him with her father.

Smiling wide, Baxter stepped down the stairs into the guildhouse, walking closer to Erick as he said, “I managed to make it through ten out of ten of Quilatalap’s dungeons this last month! My prize was a date with him and with you, if you also agreed to such a thing.”

Erick frowned a little. “Well… That’s… No.”

Baxter’s enthusiasm did not wane, but he did pull back. “I thought you might have come around because of that wager, but if that’s not what brings you here, then what does? Or is this all for Jane?”

Erick began walking forward and Baxter walked with him, as Erick said, “We’re headed to Ascendant Mountain. I suggest you tell everyone headed that way to rethink their journey until I give word otherwise, because while Jane is in charge, what is happening is my sort of show, if you get my meaning.”

Baxter’s eyes went wide, and then most of his friendly nature vanished behind a whole lot of deep thinking. He gauged Erick, and then Ophiel, and then he looked to where Jane had gotten off to. Erick’s daughter and one of the heads of the Dungeon Guild were currently in a meeting room, far beyond the gathering-hall-portion of the guildhall fortress, talking with the various people who oversaw this land a lot more than Baxter usually did.

Baxter was technically in charge of Aniduun because he was that powerful, but he would have lost this ultimate position of authority years ago if he wasn’t just as good at governing as he was at magic and swordplay. His ‘skill at governing’ was only mostly to appoint the right people to the right jobs.

It was a valid strategy.

Baxter asked, “Perhaps we should be in that meeting, if only to see past the security veils that they threw up into the room.”

Erick smiled at Baxter’s casual competence. Yes, there were security veils in that room with Jane and the other three people, and Erick was looking past them with an Ophiel on Jane’s shoulder, but most people would mana sense in that direction and only see a nothing-conversation, about the weather, or about population growth numbers.

- - - -

Erick went into the room first, disturbing and almost breaking the Privacy spellwork surrounding the place, but he also casually repaired and reinforced that spellwork through a bit of [Renew] magic. Baxter followed, magically making sure his disturbance to the spellwork was as minor as he could make it, but visually it looked like he wasn’t doing anything at all, except pretending to step over an [Alarm Ward] strung across the bottom of the door. There was no [Alarm Ward] strung across the bottom of the door.

Erick sealed up the magics behind them.

All conversation had stopped while the two of them had entered the room.

“Hello, everyone, good to see you again,” Erick said, breaking the ice. “Jane has already informed you of some of the danger coming this way, and I am reinforcing her message of that danger.”

Leona Carver was an 89 year old stern-grandmotherly human woman who had been a Pirate Queen in her younger days, and though she still had the Class she had left that life behind ten years ago. She mostly functioned as a variant Abyssal Mage, when she wasn’t the overseer of the Dungeon Research Department of Dungeon Island.

With a few looks from Leona to the others, the group allowed her to speak first.

“I like a good puzzle as much as the next woman,” Leona asked, “But is this Sundering research necessary?”

“It is necessary because the Relevant Entities have voted for it,” Erick answered succinctly, and yet not satisfying anyone at all.

By consensus, Olivia Stoneway was next. She was a rather young Stone Archmage, at only 30 years old, but she was already head of the Roads and Infrastructure department of Aniduun. She was responsible for the major defenses of this land, and for maintaining the node network. She got down to brass tacks and simply asked, “What sort of defensive preparations would you recommend?”

“All of them,” Erick said, “At a proper guess, though, I would put Elemental Void and Destruction threats higher on the list than most other threats. I’ll be adding a few spells of that nature to the front lines, far afield of the city. Don’t count on them, though, because I won’t be there to reinforce them, and we don’t know the actual threat yet.”

Olivia grumbled a little bit, her eyes narrowing on nothing as she looked away and thought.

Aniduun had no real mayor, but Cintro Prokop, a 60 year old demi Book Mage, was close to that sort of designation. He was technically head of ‘Civilian Relations’, but that was a Dungeon Guild department that only existed in Aniduun, under the power of Baxter.

Cintro asked, “What should I tell people?”

Erick said, “Stay away from Ascendant Mountain, or prepare to lose your life, for we will be exploring the deep, unknown memories of the Dark, in order to understand, move past, and protect against another Sundering. It’ll be a healing experience, I hope. If nothing else, it’ll be us ensuring that the unknown causes of the Sundering will never again threaten Veird, or any of the other worlds yet to come.”

Silence stretched.

Concern was carved deep into the furrowed brows and frowns of everyone in the room, except for Jane and Erick. Jane was as stoic as a leader should be, and Erick loved seeing her like that. For Erick’s part, he still wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen, either, so keeping his answers short was necessary to assuage fears.

But the tone was still getting too dark in here, so Erick lightened his tone, saying, “I’m rather certain that Jane and I will be able to solve this conundrum. All I need out of you is to keep doing what you’re doing, but maybe keep people away from the mountain while we’re there.”

Baxter spoke brightly, too, saying, “If that’s what the Wizard wants, that’s what the Wizard gets! Shouldn’t be too difficult for us at all! But you’ll come to town now and then to keep your sanity about you, yeah? We’ve got all the amenities that you ain’t gonna find out there in the Dark, right here in our little slice of paradise.”

Erick smiled in turn. “We’ll give updates when necessary. No news is probably good news, though.”

“Fair enough! Fair enough,” Baxter said. “You’ll be able to stay for dinner, right? Let us treat you to a feast.”

“We’ve got to give the same sorts of warnings to Jokun and Zawindi,” Erick said.

“I’ll invite Golgoro and Debiza here,” Baxter said, without missing a beat. “They’d love a good feast, and something tells me the little bit of information you’ve given us is not as satisfying as you could make it, Wizard Flatt,” he said with a sly grin.

Jane glanced at her father, and Erick could tell that she didn’t want to stick around.

And Erick had his own obligations, too. So.

Erick compromised, “We need to see the others, and then head on to the mountain. If we can be back in time for dinner, we will. Don’t wait up.”

“I’ll need to make it a feast to talk about you and yours when you’re gone, anyway,” Baxter said, good-naturedly. With an arched brow, he added, “And you can show up if you want.”

“That works,” Jane said. Then she asked Erick, “Shall we move to the next city?”

“Then we’re off.” Erick gave a nod toward the rulers of Aniduun, and all four of them bowed deeply in turn. Erick opened a [Gate] from one stone-keep room to another, then stepped through, already telling the startled receptionist on the other side, “Erick Flatt for a meeting with Golgoro, please.”

Jane followed.

Erick closed the [Gate] behind them.

- - - -

In a nice tower room that gave full view of the walled city of Jokun all around, Erick looked down upon the Southside river and the delta of that river, to the south. This river delta was only partially a monster road, and not nearly as well-used as the Westside River, north of Aniduun. The real monster roads of Jokun ran north of the city, because that’s where most of the mana flowed onto the land.

For the land north of Jokun was what faced the Font; one of the many upward waterways of Veird.

Far to the east, in between the Three Sisters, the ocean burbled up from the Underworld, creating something like a reverse whirlpool, ever-active underwater volcano, and a major flow of mana, on par with what Aniduun experienced coming off of the Duun Ocean. The Font was a major part of the water cycle of the Surface of Veird, for it brought water from over 3,500 kilometers below the Surface, to the Surface. The Font wasn’t visible from here; not even on a clear day, like today, even though the Font was 500 kilometers wide…

Sometimes the scale of it all really got Erick, and now was one of those times. He couldn’t see the Font from here, but what was visible was an ever-present cloud that hovered on the horizon in that direction, and never went away, while also reaching far, far into the sky. That cloud covered a full eighth of the horizon, and went all the way up to the Edge of the Script, which was comparatively close to the Surface, compared to the size of that ancient waterway—

The door burst open, slapping the wall with force, splintering a little as the orcol warrior king Golgoro Spinesnapper stood there, his clothes ripped up and blood still on him, though only some of it was his. His ax was sheathed on his back, but his hands looked like they were itching to grip that ax once again.

Golgoro fixed Erick with his eyes, asking, “Is it true? You search for the Sundering?”

“Aye,” Erick said, “It’s true.”

“Then you are a fool and all the gods should kill themselves and leave us out of it.”

Golgoro walked away.

Erick sighed a little, then said, “Always a direct sort of guy. Respectable.”

Jane nodded. “I like him, too.”

- - - -

In a nice room with nice couches and with a wonderful view of the expansive delta of the Northside River, a servant served steaming cups of tea that no one drank, and Erick delivered some bad news to one incani woman, named Debiza Gloriz. The leader of Zawindi, the Delta City, was a woman of many blacks, from her skin to her hair to her eyes and horns. If it weren’t for her white teeth, then one might think she was an adamantium wrought, but she was not wrought royalty. She was a very good stateswoman, though, almost the same as any queen in any other nation.

Debiza said, “This is a disturbing development. Thank you for the alert. Will you be joining us for dinner at Aniduun? My contemporary has expressed to me the nature of your visit before you arrived, but hearing it in person makes me want to think about it for an hour or two, and then revisit all of this in a more informed setting. A dinner party would suffice.”

“If we’re able to return to Aniduun for dinner, then we will,” Erick said.

Jane added, “But we’re off to the Mountain, now.”

Debiza gave a professional nod, and then she bowed, “Demons bless your journey.”

“And you as well,” Erick said.

And then he opened another [Gate].

- - - -

One could not step on Ascendant Mountain without passing the trials that surrounded the land, first.

… But Erick should have been able to bypass those trials with [Gate].

When Erick’s [Gate] opened up on the foothills of the giant mountain instead of directly onto Melemizargo’s throne, or rather onto the space in front of that throne, Erick did a little frown at the journey ahead, and then stepped onto the grasslands. Jane followed.

Erick looked up at the mountain ahead of him, and at the chain of mountains stretching north and south, going far, far out of his sight. He and Jane stood upon some gently sloping plains, but the size of those mountains made it like they were standing in a valley. Mountains of that size could only ever exist on Veird, or in other unnatural places.

“Can’t even see the city from here,” Erick said, as he stared ahead, at the expanse of cracked green, grey, and white that capped the world. “I’m honestly not sure where we are, exactly.” He pointed forward, toward the tallest peak. “That’s Mount Vesi, isn’t it?”

“It probably is.” Jane frowned a little as she studied the path ahead. Beyond this clearing it was all untrod jungle, filled with trees that mostly topped out at 50 meters tall, but there were a few wild ones that grew a lot taller than that. The shadows here were deep, even under the full sun. Jane glanced around at the clearing they were in, and asked, “Is this the only clearing in the area?”

“Looks like,” Erick said, as Ophiels flew up and around, scouting the area. Erick checked the near past, and then said, “This area wasn’t a clearing until two minutes ago. There’s still trees churned into logs and mulch just under the surface.” Erick sighed a little, and then he fixed his gaze on a deep shadow in the woods, saying, “Melemizargo. Is this little path through the forests necessary?”

Monsters roared in the deep forest. Birds chirped. Monkeys howled. Bugs buzzed. The sun beat down hard.

And there was no answer from the shadows at all.

Erick frowned. “Melemizargo?”

… Still no answer.

Jane began walking forward, leading the way, her body turning to glitter and prismatic light. She stepped—

She stumbled out of prismatic power, having traveled only five meters. She looked down at the ground, and at herself. She lightstepped, shadowstepped, and airwalked all at the same time, the harmonious blending of magic carrying her another grand total of... 5 meters ahead, almost to the treeline. She looked around.

Jane said, “There’s some impeding magic in the air… Oddly strong.”

Erick narrowed his eyes, focusing on the air, tapping into the power of his All-Seeing Eye. There was a certain sort of Darkness to the air. Erick pulled his Sight back, saying, “It’s divine magic. Melemizargo’s, I reckon.”

Erick started walking forward. He tried a full Step, and ended up traveling 5 meters, just like Jane had done. And then he controlled his stepping to something smaller, and easier. He stepped through real space, instead of through Benevolence and Light, moving fast instead of instantly, and that made all the difference. In a moment Erick stood next to Jane, waving a hand, opening [Gate]s in front of him—

The other end of the [Gate] appeared behind them instead of anywhere ahead. Jane turned her head around to see the other side of the [Gate], raising an eyebrow in silent question.

“It was supposed to open ahead of us.” Erick closed the [Gate]. “Anyway! Looks like if we traverse real space then we can go fast. No elementwalking, though.”

Jane nodded. She faced forward. “This is what happens in the Dark. You can move around through real space, but no stepping… At least I imagine that’s what happens in the Dark. I don’t actually have ‘darkstepping’, but I imagine Melemizargo has it, and can properly elementstep, unlike everyone else.”

Erick began walking, his steps moving him further than normal, but not instantly. He plunged into the shadows of the forest. Jane followed, keeping pace. And Erick noticed that Jane had something she wanted to say, but she wasn’t sure how to say it.

So Erick said, “So you’re on the Worldly Path, eh? That was just a bunch of ‘you can’t use [Teleport] to shorten the trip'. No actual restrictions on movement, though. Where did you end up going on your Worldly Path?”

“… Sorry I didn’t tell you about that.”

“There’s a lot you didn’t tell me about,” Erick said, as they passed by a dark hole in the world, nestled in the roots of a tree and a tumbled boulder. A small snail on the tree above the wild dungeon shot a Bolt of Decay at Erick, but he splashed that Bolt away with a flicker of light. He and his daughter continued on, attacked by a few scattered monsters here and there, but not actually threatened at all. When Jane remained silent, Erick continued, “How about we talk about what you expected to get out of this journey into the Dark, working for Melemizargo as his Paladin.”

More monsters.

More silence from Jane.

They both used Force or Light or Shadow or Benevolence to deflect attacks and step over deadfall, or around large trees, or through steel-strong spiderwebs that attempted to block the path, but which failed miserably when faced with Erick, and Jane.

“… I’m expendable, dad. That’s why I’m doing this. You’re not expendable.”

Erick perhaps killed the attacking prime shadowolf that was as big as a van with a bit too much strength behind his swipe. That monster turned to shredded gore and bone, and spread out across a good hundred meters.

Erick controlled his anger, and said, “You should stop protecting me, Jane. It’s not your place to protect me. It’s my place to protect you.”

“No,” Jane said, vehemently. “That’s too simple of a metric, and in its simplicity, it is incorrect.” Jane carved a slavering dog-like thing in half as it jumped at them. They continued onward. “You are a ruler of the world. You shouldn’t even be here. You should go back to House Benevolence and take up knitting, or something. Stay in reserve for when there’s another Wizard in the world that chooses to harm instead of help. We got lucky with the Anarchy Wizard and his wife. Another Holo could happen at any time. Another Blue Wizard could, too.” Jane briefly stared at her father, saying, “I am expendable compared to you.”

Erick’s heart broke as Jane called herself expendable, his control over his magic faltering. He slowed down. Jane stopped, and Erick stopped next to her. He looked at Jane and his voice cracked, as he forced himself to say, “You— You’re not expendable.”

Jane breathed, and nodded, her emotions kept on a tight leash. “You can lie if you want, dad. But I’d prefer it if you didn’t.”

Erick had no words.

Jane still had some words. “Another truth to be acknowledged is that we and Veird are in a moment of safety right now, brought on by you and House Benevolence—”

“And you, too! The Dungeon Guild was—”

“Anyone would have made the Dungeon Guild happen and I’m not even in charge because I know I do better work out there fighting, so that other people can be safe at home.” Jane continued, “I can pave the way. You can build the houses and the government. And that’s fine.” Erick tried to say something, but Jane just spoke louder, “Besides! I’m going to be copying myself tens of times up ahead so that at least one of us will be able to make it through this coming trial. But I’m still going into this trial. I do this so that all of the New Cosmology and all who come after won’t have to worry about the Sundering coming back to kill them all when they least expect it. This is important work, and it will be done, and I should be the one to do it so that you don’t die—” Jane’s voice cracked as a tear fell, “I want to keep you safe, okay? Let me do this for you. For us. For everything that is to come. You can watch from the sidelines. I’m sure the Dark will provide ample viewing ability and ample ways for you to pull me out, or save me. That’s probably why he got you involved at all.”

About a thousand questions tumbled through Erick’s mind.

The one that came up first, and largest, was, “How long has this been going on?”

“Four years. Ever since the Wizard of Anarchy lifted the Stairway to the Edge out of Quintlan and you almost died out there. Over the course of… A while, Melemizargo questioned me. Probing questions to see how on-board I was with this sort of idea, in theory, mostly. He had already seen me breaking dungeon cores for the last half a decade, but after Holo… Melemizargo started revealing to me some of his major plans. It wasn’t till the last month that I got a lot more insight into what he wanted. The full scope. You and I are probably on more or less the same page. I understand he told the gods everything.”

“… You were the original plan,” Erick said, realizing something important. “And then I shoved myself into this space. Or maybe the Relevant Entities decided they didn’t like Melemizargo’s original plan... But Melemizargo has been building you up to be the perfect delver into the Dark.”

“Yes.”

“And he expects me to stand back and support you.”

“I think so.”

Erick breathed, and then he explained, “I’m gonna tell you straight up some true facts, Jane, and you need to listen. If you died, I would go crazy. Everyone knows that, but here I am saying this. So you’re not going to do this incredibly dangerous shit. What is going to happen is I’m going to take your place, and make a copy of myself, instead of you making copies of yourself.

“AND!

“That has to be Melemizargo’s original goal—” Erick was going to continue, his rage kept in check by the need to get his words out, but then Jane got personally offended that Erick would think that Melemizargo would try to screw her over, or use her against him, or some other such order-of-events that Erick could barely comprehend right now due to the anger. “Don’t you give me that look, Jane, like I’m making up stories, or that I’m somehow implying that you’re not ‘good enough’ or some other imagined falsehood. I have never said you can’t do anything you wanted to do; don’t go imagining I don’t believe in you now. You’re better than that.

“BUT! But you talk of motivations of the highest powers of this world in one breath, and then state that you’re somehow beyond manipulation in the second. I know for a fact that I’m being manipulated right now.”

Jane demanded, “Then give me a solution, dad!”

“We both make copies, or some shit like that! And neither of us go into the Dark.” Erick said, “But that’s probably a manipulation, too! I’m almost 100% certain now that the copy of myself that I made earlier in this Path is the actual backup for whatever shit we’re walking into, and that Rozeta knew of this when she asked me to do that… Or maybe she didn’t. Actually. That’s more likely. Melemizargo is manipulating Rozeta, too.”

Jane stated, “And even if we are being manipulated, the Sundering still has to be permanently stopped, and that involves us understanding what the Sundering even was, which involves me doing this, whatever ‘this’ might be.”

“Involves ‘us’ doing this, Jane,” Erick said, “You’re not alone. I am not alone. We are not facing the end of a universe without each other.”

Jane frowned a little, another unruly tear falling. Her voice was softer as she said, “That works, too.”

And then Jane rushed to her father, and held him tight. For the second time in the same day, Erick spilled some tears on his daughter’s shoulder.

Softly, Erick said, “This is a right mess, isn’t it.”

Jane chuckled, a strained sound. “… Yeah.”

“So are we gonna hang out on Ascendant Mountain for a month while our repros —if they’re willing— go out and solve the Sundering?”

Jane softly said, “I’m pretty sure mine will want to do that.” Softer, “It’s not going to be that simple, though.”

Erick chuckled. “Probably not.” And then he said, “I guess you’ve had some time to come to grips with all of this, eh?”

“I have, dad. Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

“Don’t worry about it. If this [Onward] thing is true…” Erick pulled back and looked Jane in the face, as he said, “Maybe you couldn’t tell me.”

Jane shrugged. And then she let go, and looked to the east, to the deep forest, and to the mountains beyond. “I bet Melemizargo put us here so we could get that out of the way before we got there.” She looked to Erick, saying, “He’s really not a bad guy… Except in the ways he’s a god and above everyone, I suppose.”

“… The only part of all of that which I am glad to hear you say, is how easily you mentioned talking to Melemizargo. That means you’ve talked to him a lot, and probably the surviving Shades, too. That means you’re rather comfortable with this sort of arena we’re walking into. You were doing that ten years ago, but...” Erick said, “I love how much you’ve grown.”

Jane smiled and chuckled, as she casually swiped her left hand behind her, entrapping an invisible shadowolf-variant in metallic threads, which killed it instantly. She didn’t bother to look at the monster she had killed, as she said, “Well that’s enough melodrama. Try a [Gate], now.”

Erick rolled his eyes, casting a [Gate] directly, and easily, straight from their forest path to the white dais at the center of Ascendant Mountain; the place that served as the ‘public’ part of Melemizargo’s throne. That had been Erick’s original [Gate] target. And this time, it landed.

Beyond a circle of white lightning lay a white land, ringed in clear crystal.

No one was on the other side right now, so Erick said to Jane, “Do you actually like Sitnakov? Because he pretends to dislike drama, but he’s a complete softy at heart who cries at movies and weddings, so if you don’t like talking about feelings with him you’re not going to land that man.”

Jane’s face heated up. “… Let’s not talk about that right now.”

- - - -

Erick and Jane stood upon a solid, flat surface of white crystal, kilometers in diameter. Crystal spires ringed the world all around. Shadows crawled in those spires.

And then shadows crawled across the world, blotting out the sun.

Melemizargo appeared upon his throne, his dark wings cast wide, his serpentine head angled down, and smiling. Glowing white fangs shone in the black.

“Welcome to Ascendant Mountain!

“And now to announce your task, Erick Flatt:

“You’re not only searching for the cause —and likely causes— of the Sundering. You’re going to plunder all of the knowledge I have of the Old Cosmology, and then you’re going to use that knowledge and power here on Veird in order to protect against every possible bad end.

“You don’t even need to go into any dungeons if you don’t want to.

“Or! You could make your own dungeon, and go through this whole ordeal with a lot less personal danger. Lots of options here."