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Erick stood with Quilatalap on a barren road between two immense stretches of golden wheat, under a black sky that was Darkness Itself. Erick wore black, which Erick rapidly realized was a very bad look for him at this particular moment, while Quilatalap also wasn’t doing anyone any favors with his black fullplate and his eyes shining white.

A soft wind blew across the fields, carrying with it the scent of storms… Or maybe the white shield upon Erick’s left arm was making that ozone/petrichor smell. The Lightning Shield crackled with white sparks from each of its five points—

And Erick realized something else about it at that moment.

Prior to its rescue from the Breaking, the Lightning Shield had been sparking mad, trying to escape from the [Abyssal Bubble Cage] the Shades had used to imprison it. And then, it had come to Erick. When Erick put the Shield on his left wrist it had seemed to lock into place in the air, floating against his very soul and arm and body like it was his own [Animadversion] silver-spike all-Reflection shield, and it was calm. No sparks. No worries at all. It was just there, weightless and protective in ways that Erick did not know it could be protective.

But it was sparking again.

Erick wasn’t sure how he knew what the Shield was feeling, but it felt as though the Shield was fending off an attack… or preparing for an attack? Erick had no real way to know.

He did know that the Shield was angry. Erick could relate. He was furious, too. Not nearly as angry as Quilatalap, of course. But still angry.

High Priestess Tiza Nindi was here, instead of waiting outside for an official ceremony to transfer the Shield into the hands of Sininindi’s church so that they could better prepare against the Prophesied Storm. She looked smug, too, and that pissed Erick off rather a lot. For a brief moment, Erick imagined his fury had risen to the level of Quilatalap’s, but then Erick’s fury went back down to an acceptable level.

Sailor Asmus at least looked contrite, as he walked with Tiza and the other person down the road, toward Erick and Quilatalap. The professional side of Sininindi’s Church was supposed to be part of the transferal ceremony, too, so in that way, it made sense for him to be here.

But what the fuck was Oozy Stormcaller doing here?

And why the fuck did he have a Benevolence ring around his neck?

Erick, as always, tried to approach the coming probably-problems with dignity and understanding.

He had to walk a bit faster than decorum demanded, though, because Quilatalap was walking angrily and fast. According to Quilatalap, whatever these three intruders had done to get into this dungeon had included violence of some sort. Erick’s limits for that sort of thing were a lot higher than Quilatalap’s right now.

But he would still get to the bottom of this.

The only real question to ask and answer before this confrontation started, was did he want to tell Quilatalap about the Benevolence ring? That fact would completely derail this entire conversation, overshadowing everything, and it needed to be said, but it also meant that Quilatalap’s chances to control the coming conversation rapidly diminished.

But, of course, he had to tell Quilatalap.

Quilatalap would understand.

Erick whipped a [Hasted Shelter] around them along with some Privacy magics to make the [Hasted Shelter] unrealized to the outside world, as he said, “Oozy Stormcaller, the third one, was [Reincarnation]ed by me months ago. I told you that story already. How he has the red bones and an odd [Reincarnation] and a [Blessing of Empathy]. Well now he’s here and there’s a Benevolence ring around his neck.”

Quilatalap had stopped when Erick cast his spellwork. He listened. He sighed deeply. Then he said, “Fuck— Okay… Let’s just kill them all— Oh come on. They don’t have to stay dead. I’m just giving options.”

“… Thank you for walking that response back so quickly.” Erick moved on. “He may be here to help protect against the Prophesied Storm, which would explain the ring—”

“Sometimes I wish you could have made your Benevolence markers a mark of assassination.”

Erick just stared at Quilatalap. He could not believe that Quilatalap would ever say such a thing, for if Benevolence worked that way it would be open season on every person ever Marked by Benevolence, which would then cascade into disaster after disaster, or misunderstanding after misunderstanding, leading to the complete collapse of Benevolence as a ‘thing that is wanted’. It would get Erick hunted by Rozeta and all the gods of the Pantheon. It would get Benevolence Banned. Holding his own anger in check, Erick almost straight-up asked Quilatalap if he was ‘Erick’s’ Quilatalap, but that seemed improper; too much. So, for a long moment, Erick was stunned.

Quilatalap frowned down at Erick, saying, “What.”

“… If you can’t tell me why what you just said was deeply troubling, then I am going to start to think something fucky is happening right now.”

Quilatalap jolted a little. “… What?”

Erick frowned. “What you… Just said?”

“What did I just say?” Quilatalap asked, scrunching his face at Erick.

“That sometimes you wished I could have made Benevolence markers a mark of assassination.”

Quilatalap winced. “I did not actually say that; don’t go policing my thoughts, now.”

“… Did you not say it? Because I heard you—” Erick glanced through the mana, to the past, while speaking in the present, “I see you said the words.” He came back fully to the moment. “Do you not remember?”

Quilatalap frowned a little. “I did not say those words. I am looking at the past right now, and I did not say them. I might have thought about them occasionally but I would never say them, because I know how that would go; a short benefit to all, and then crashing horror and a Forgotten Campaign and a Banning… I think I might have subvocalized them. This whole thing with… These people.” Quilatalap turned his sight outward, to the land beyond the Private space. “It takes a lot to get me angry, and I think these people have done that. Can we talk about my thoughts on Benevolence markers later?”

“… Sorry, Quilatalap.” Erick knew what he saw, but he wasn’t going to make a big deal of it right now. “Maybe I am upset, too. Do you want to take a moment and speak to the dungeon?”

Quilatalap blinked. “Yes. Absolutely. One second.” He closed his eyes and began channeling mana to speak to the dungeon.

It would take him longer than normal since there was a heavy time dilation between this Private space and the dungeon space, so Erick just waited, having a think of his own. Quilatalap was probably a whole lot angrier than he let on. He had said that these three people from the Church of Sininindi would have needed to break through extensive defenses to breach this far into the dungeon which had included ‘guardians’ of some sort. Quilatalap could probably revive them… But they would likely never be the same. People often weren’t the same after reviving, for death was a massive trauma. Most delvers who experienced the [True Resurrection] that most dungeons had these days went on to forswear ever delving again. And maybe they could try delving again later when their soul healed and they felt up to the challenge and reward again. People with souls, as living beings, could heal their souls; they could heal that soul trauma. Undead had to fix their trauma themselves, and sometimes undead guardians with very complicated, sapient souls, needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. This perma-killed the undead—

Quilatalap came back to himself and he was angrier than before. His eyes flickered with the red of Carnage as his Rage slipped out. He maintained, though, pushing his Rage down.

He simply said, “It’s worse than I figured. They have killed the repros of me that were Vanya and Soltic. They have instituted a repro of Tiza into the dungeon core. That repro is still regaining consciousness, but they have used an artifact of Time to speed up the process. She is functioning at 75% effectiveness. Tiza-2 is functionally in charge of this entire dungeon now, though she’s only been at it for an hour or two; only as long as we were back there in the Shadow Dungeon, recovering the Shield. They’re going to attack us as soon as you lower this Privacy.”

Erick skipped right past being surprised and a whole bunch of other emotions and went straight to furious—

Quilatalap continued, “They have likely found our house. If not, then it is only a matter of time. And so, I have instituted the self-destruct sequence on our house. I am leaving this dungeon with you, Erick. We’re not confronting them.” As he spoke, he vented his Rage. With a calm, centered voice and psyche, Quilatalap said, “We’re leaving.”

Erick took a moment to calm himself, too.

Quilatalap needed several more moments anyway. He turned his gaze outward, at the dungeon he had worked so hard to make. At the bridges he had tried to build. Erick watched as Quilatalap silently wondered if it was all for nothing, if there was never any hope of being allowed to live openly on Veird, and if Sininindi had been fucking with him and how badly she had been fucking with him. A hundred other unsaid questions passed through the large man as he cast his sight across the golden wheat fields and at the rest of the frozen world out there, while time passed incredibly fast in here, in this [Hasted Shelter] and other magics.

Erick said, “I would have you escape, please. I need to confront them.”

“Sure.” Quilatalap said, “Confront them outside of the dungeon, though. Tiza-2 is gleefully plotting how to fuck you up if you confront the original here.”

“Prudent. Which way is the fastest escape?”

“Unless we’re in Storm Lockdown, any sort of declaration that you want to leave right now would work, but such an action would place you outside on the valley floor, in the center of the largest, open space. Tiza has likely accounted for that, but even so the ‘largest open space’ is still at least a second of safety. It’s safer than staying here.” Quilatalap held out his hand to Erick, saying, “Let’s both go at the same time. You can leave this Privacy here.”

“Could she have rerouted the escape clause?”

Quilatalap paused, his hand still held out. He dropped his hand. “I will need to check on that.” He focused on Elemental Book again. Slowly, grey magic seeped out of him, into the world.

Erick waited.

An escape clause was an emergent thing that every dungeon had hard-coded into it, because [True Resurrection] needed a place to put the revived person, and that place to put a person had to be a safe zone, and that space often became the very same escape zone that people could evacuate to. So the designation of that space, and what it meant, was one of the things that people could change if they thought to do it, and Quilatalap would have thought about that. The escape clause at the Benevolence Dungeon could be rerouted, for sure; sometimes it went to the entrance if the revived or escaped person still had lives left, and other times it went to a secure holding room if the person was on their last life so that they knew that continuing in the dungeon would kill them.

All escape clauses could be rerouted.

Later, he would ask Quilatalap if the big guy was feeling okay, because while Quilatalap was obviously furious he almost never made small, easily overlooked but very large mistakes like he was making now. Normally, a question of safe direction like Erick had asked would have been met with ‘the escape clause is secure, and if it is not then we’re fucked beyond fucked, so let’s go out blazing from that location anyway’. Or maybe he would have a better idea—

“The escape clause is secure,” Quilatalap said, coming back to himself. “Tiza 2 is getting deep in the Rules right now but she’s only been able to enact a few. Benevolence is subdued. Lightning and Divine magic are heightened. I believe she is planning on fighting here.”

Erick held out his hand. “Then we fight elsewhere and I open with words, not [Grand Fireballs].”

Quilatalap put his hand into Erick’s. “I would like to hear—”

A shadow stood up from the floor.

It was Verrod of Vast Skies, Champion of Melemizargo. He had put away the speedo and donned a black suit that was several centuries out of date.

Erick inhaled, and then let out a shuddering sigh of complete annoyance. He had thought that Verrod had simply been Melemizargo looking in on current events, but nope! It was worse than that. It was a Shade that should have never come back to life, and yet here he was. Was it just him? Or did the other Shades escape from the Breaking Ritual, too?

Verrod grinned as he saw Erick’s turmoil. “I’m supposed to accept a [Blessing of Empathy] to be allowed in this world. Give it to me, Erick Flatt, Fire of the Age, and be prepared to give more to others—”

Quilatalap scowled at him, demanding, “Who did you bring with you.”

“A few assorted accomplices. They’ve already left this ‘dungeon’, by the way. I stuck around because My God demanded I stick around, and so here I am. Initially, when you left the Breaking Ceremony, I suspected I knew about 90% of what all of this was all about, but that number is steadily decreasing. I’m at around 5% comprehension at the moment.” Verrod said, “Destroying the ‘Shadow Dungeon’ as we left was rather cathartic in a few ways, though.”

That was not nearly a good enough answer for Quilatalap.

Verrod noticed, smirking even wider, his expression turning truly gleeful.

“How many of you are there?” Erick asked, keeping his rage out of his voice.

“Around 15 of us survived that absolute purge. It’s enough.” Verrod held out a hand, saying, “Get on with the Empathy, Erick.”

“You’re going to be out of commission for a while and Rozeta is going to have words with you and I am going to have words with you and a whole bunch of other shit is going to happen at my discretion. You are to report to Ascendant Mountain which was probably called ‘Infamy’ back in your day; it is the largest of the Three Sisters, southwest of mainland Quintlan. That is where Melemizargo now makes his main home. Do not go to Ar’Kendrithyst.” Erick asked, “Do you agree to both the wording and spirit of these declarations?”

Verrod stared hard at Erick, his joyful smile fading slightly, and then altogether. He almost dropped his hand, but then he did not. And then he put aside his anger, and said, “I agree.”

Erick slapped his hand with a [Blessing of Empathy].

Power flooded into Verrod, breaking down his soul and rebuilding him from the core outward, like the flexing of a sphere, turning it briefly to sand and then back to solidness. Small tears gathered in his eyes like liquid light. Those tears fell from his stoic face, leaving behind tracks of illumination that dried fast, turning to flaking ash, before fading away in the manasphere.

He didn’t collapse, though.

“… I’m impressed, Verrod.” Erick said, “All the Shades I’ve ever done that to have broken down into sobbing messes—”

Verrod broke down into a sobbing mess, going down to his knees and then down to the ground. He turned halfway to shadow as he sunk deeper and deeper.

Erick softly said, “I am going to take care of you, Verrod, but you have come into this real world at a very difficult time.” Verrod turned a little more solid. Erick added, “I truly hope you didn’t scatter threats throughout this dungeon and elsewhere in your escape from the Shadow side of things—”

“Oh Holy Dark,” Verrod said, his grey face seeming to turn white as horror dawned within. He was on his feet again. “I made a mistake. I did not follow My God’s command as well as I should have.”

Erick was not surprised, but too much was going on right now to deal with this. “What happened?”

“… I have some Shades to cull— Oh. Okay.” Verrod breathlessly jolted as his emotions did something turmoil-ish inside of him. He softly said, “I don’t think I could kill anyone like this. Even the thought…” His voice trailed away.

Erick said, “We’re leaving the dungeon now and you’re going to fix your mess, Verrod. Ask the other Shades to help you. Quilatalap and I have to deal with this Storm Church mess. Everyone ready to escape?”

Quilatalap glared down at Verrod, his eyes full of uncomfortable concern. “… I’m ready.”

Verrod breathed and regained his composure. “Ready.”

“Quilatalap. Your go,” Erick said.

Quilatalap spoke to the air, “Emergency dungeon exit right fucking now. I’m not joking. Escape, escape es—”

The world flickered black—

- - - -

—and then came back together under a blue sky surrounded by thick clouds and the sun shining right down through the center of them, like Erick, his boyfriend, and the hanger-on Shade, were at the bottom of a massively large well. They were on the northeast-ish floor of the dungeon valley, standing upon solid stone, far away from everything. There was no attack. There had been no diversion to another location. They were in the real world, for Ophiel was already out here and flying far and wide, showing Erick everything Erick wanted to see.

And so, the first thing Erick did was to ask Verrod, “Where are the other Shades?”

Fallopolis and Goldie stepped out of nearby shadows. Fallopolis glanced at Verrod then said to Erick, “We’ll be taking him if you would be so kind, Erick.”

“Gladly.” Erick asked Fallopolis, “Have you found the others who escaped?”

“We have found 16 of them. They’re already at Ascendant Mountain, for My God is taking a heavy hand in this reintroduction.” Fallopolis strongly requested, “We humbly ask that you Empathy them when you get a chance.”

“I’ll be doing that when I can.” Erick felt a certain weight fall off his shoulders as he watched nothing too untoward happen in the world, and as Fallopolis seemed to be in command, even though she wasn’t…

Erick paused.

Verrod had been the Champion of Melemizargo back in the Breaking Ritual. His soul had shone like the most iridescent white/black thing that Erick had ever seen, but it was still nothing compared to Melemizargo himself. It was more like a fraction of Melemizargo’s power, put into a very small person.

That’s what Verrod-the-Champion had looked like.

He did not look like that anymore. He looked like a normal Shade, or maybe worse. Like a tattered soul.

Erick paused as he Looked at Fallopolis. And then he turned his All-Seeing Eye up to full blast. Fallopolis was strong of soul and body, and her soul was iridescent black/white.

Goldie and Verrod, by comparison, looked like a normal Shade and a severely weakened Shade.

Erick said to Fallopolis, “I didn’t think Championships could be moved around like that.”

Fallopolis tried not to grin, but when it was apparent she was failing that attempt, she let it happen. “I promise to be the same Fallopolis you have known all this time, Erick.” And then she waved her black kendrithyst staff at the air at her side and a whirlpool of black appeared. “Come along now, Verrod. A lot has happened since your time, and you and I are going to have a talk about how many Shades you actually brought back.”

“It was 47,” Verrod said, distraught and rapidly. “Most of them were the crazy ones. I released them to soften up whatever was out here or get killed and make it easier for the rest of us.”

Erick almost roared—

“I am handling it, Erick.” Fallopolis requested, “Please let me handle—”

Golden lightning flickered across the northern sky like a dragon fluttering fast through the clouds.

Fallopolis jerked her finger toward Verrod. “Into the gate!” She shouted to the world. “All of you!”

Verrod moved fast as a shadow, into the black. Without warning and for a kilometer around, 27 other shadows coalesced out of the nearby air, rising from the ground halfway as they rushed forward, the glowing white eyes of Shades of every race the only thing they showed of themselves as they bowed to Erick and Fallopolis on their way past, into the portal.

Goldie requested, “I would like to stay for this, my lord.”

“Granted.” Erick said, “We got a Ringer, Goldie. Keep an eye out.”

Fallopolis shuddered, muttered about how she was glad she didn’t have to deal with that, and then she bowed a fraction before she vanished into the black portal.

Goldie remained, standing resolute in the news of a Benevolence ring spotting, her black sword floating behind her, her black leathers and that giant sword looking especially menacing in the bright sunlight. She was ready for anything.

Erick glanced to Quilatalap and saw that the man was gripping his Void spear strongly; he was ready, too.

Erick stood ready to receive whoever might show. He was flanked by one Shade and one not-Shade, with the Lightning Shield upon his left arm and Ophiel in the sky— In a moment of clarity, Erick sent a telepathic message to House Benevolence, to Poi, detailing everything that had just happened.

Ten seconds later, Poi’s voice came to him, ‘I’m sending some reinforcements, and I will have them hold up at the gatehouse. Aisha and Teressa are looking into the Benevolent Sky. I will have their report in a minute.’

‘Send it along when you can. Please inform Solomon and Kromolok of Tiza’s happenings. I am not requesting physical help from either of them, but I do want their input. Inform them of the Shades but leave the new Shade problem to Fallopolis for now. I want the Mind Mages to track any massive Shade problems from any of the escaped Shades, and I will be fixing those problems later.’

‘Understood. Sending messages now— The Throne is responding. Mind Mage Rodrygo is asking for a lessening of hostilities as he tries to coordinate with his people to find out what happened.’

‘I’m standing here, Poi. Waiting.’ Erick thought for a second, and both sent his next thought, and spoke it for the convenience of Goldie and Quilatalap, “Tell the Throne about non-secret information of what happened in the dungeon with Tiza, and what we suspect happened. After what she pulled, I want to know what is going on in Storm’s Edge before she comes out and talks to me.”

Goldie softly asked Quilatalap what happened, and Quilatalap started talking small words.

Erick waited for Poi to get back to—

‘Did you lend out a [Benevolence Detector] ring earlier today?’

Erick felt a good handful of terrible emotions at that moment. Yes, he had lent out a ring. Number 7 out of the bunch. ‘Wiloza Tidewalker has it. The records should show that.’

‘That’s the problem. We don’t know who that is. We can’t find the ring either. It’s gone.’

“… You don’t know who Wiloza Tidewalker is?” Erick asked, also sending that as he spoke the words—

The world flickered red.

- - - -

Shades vanished through a black gate and Fallopolis followed.

And Erick realized he had been here before.

He remembered everything of how he had communicated with Poi, and how Wiloza and the [Benevolence Detection] ring #7 was gone, and how he had tried to inform the whole world of what was going down here, but how time had been reversed, just like how it had been reversed in the Breaking Ritual zone. Back then Erick hadn’t been fully aware of what was happening.

But now, he was aware.

He almost opened his mouth to speak his concerns—

But a distinct, inexplicable feeling of wrongness and terror and aversion held his tongue, drawing out the moment long enough for him to realize that something fucky was happening, and Benevolence itself was telling Erick ‘do not do this’. It was a sixth sense. It was something that rarely happened, but when it did, Erick listened.

He adjusted his thoughts.

He plotted a course forward…

And the feeling vanished.

Erick sent to Poi, ‘I have experienced a problem. I cannot tell you about a lot of it right now, but I think, if I do this correctly, then nothing horribly bad will happen. Just tell Teressa and Aisha to check on the Benevolent Sky. I also want the Mind Mages to help find the Shades that were released by Verrod. Here’s a packet on that.’ Erick sent Poi information on the ‘47’ released Shades, and how many of them were already with Fallopolis on Ascendant Mountain. ‘I don’t believe any of those specific numbers, so make of that what you will.’

‘… Okay. Done. The alarm is half-raised over here. Can you give me more than that?’

‘I do not believe that is wise right now. I will probably go incommunicado shortly. Please give me Teressa and Aisha’s recommendations before that. Also, tell the Sea Foam Throne to get Tiza, Asmus, and Oozy out here.’

‘Done. I’ll be in touch.’

Erick nodded.

There. This felt more stable, for some reason. Erick wasn’t sure, but he had a very sneaking suspicion that this was the anti-meme in full effect, and it had some sort of [Return] power, and some sort of personhood-erasing power since Wiloza was missing, and also… as he had those thoughts, and as nothing happened, he was pretty sure that he had… become immune somehow? Erick wasn’t sure on that part, but he was rather sure that the anti-meme couldn’t read minds.

And yet, why didn’t Debby just tell Erick about the anti-meme through [Telepathy]?

Oh. Well.

Well, maybe the anti-meme couldn’t read minds, but it could certainly alter time and space, so all it did was check on people through the time stream and then alter time based on what those people did when they knew about it, or spoke aloud—

Ah.

Wiloza was a disappeared person now. Speaking her name was tantamount to throwing chum in the water…

Erick was rather angry, but he could pretend that Wiloza did not exist, even though, logically, that was simply fucking crazy. Every major power in the world had an archmage on staff, or at least on call. And Wiloza had a lot of family, didn’t she? That’d be a lot of memories to erase… Except it wasn’t erasing memories, was it?

Oh.

It was altering reality itself.

… Maybe the Red Leviathan wasn’t controlling ‘time’. Maybe it was controlling multiversal dimensions, like a god could control reality, like how Melemizargo had turned Erick into a centaur, and then a fairy, and then a book, that one time, except that’s not what Melemizargo had done at all. He had translated Erick into a new reality.

Perhaps the anti-meme was doing the same to disappeared people; tuning reality itself toward a desired outcome…

Maybe.

It was a working theory.

Another working theory was to not upset the cart too much and thus the anti-meme wouldn’t upset him with more ‘time reversals’—

Poi’s voice came to Erick, ‘The Prophesied Storm is either happening in the next hour or in four months. What do you want to do?’

Archipelago Nergal was home to 22.5 million people.

Erick’s answer was instant, but he took the time to speak as well as send his message, “The dungeon is absolutely not ready to handle the future where the Storm happens right now, and so, I am going to give up a lot of ground here to make sure the Storm happens four months from now.”

Moments passed.

Goldie was loose and ready for war.

Quilatalap grunted, forcing his Rage to gutter at that moment.

Poi replied, ‘Looks like… it’s still up in the air a little, but the distant time frame is slightly more solid.’

‘Thank you, Poi. Give me live updates until it settles one way or another.’ Erick spoke aloud, “Just have to get through this meeting, and the Archipelago is safe for four more months.”

Quilatalap quietly whispered, “Fine.”

Erick said, “Sorry, Quilatalap. I am going to secure your amnesty, but it appears your time and the subterfuge here at Storm’s Edge is over. I doubt there will be any reclamation of your people or your work.”

Quilatalap wanted revenge for the loss of his repos and his guardians and all of the people he lost, but he could settle for taking what he came here for and then leaving. He had needed to do that many different times over his very long life. The loss of the work was much easier to swallow. He could rebuild this dungeon anywhere, and maybe even resurrect the people elsewhere, too, but the loss of the Pantheon’s once-in-a-thousand-years-amnesty was what would have really hurt.

Quilatalap breathed easier, but he was still angry as he said, “That will have to be enough—”

Golden lightning flashed down to the ground twenty meters in front of Erick.

Tiza, Asmus, and Oozy stepped out of the golden lightning.

“Sininindi’s Shield, Erick,” Tiza said, walking forward, hand out, her countenance hidden behind her half-mask, but Erick still saw her smugness and her petty joy. “Now.”

Quilatalap blasted her with a ray of [Absolute Death].

After a split second of a divine golden shield disintegrating away from the Head Priestess of Sininindi, Tiza disintegrated from her heart outward, her face barely recognizing her death before even that dispersed on the wind. Her clothes and her mask fell to the stone ground in a soft clatter.

Quilatalap was satisfied.

In that very same second, he brought Tiza back to life, exactly where she had perished. Good as new. He even managed to put her clothes back onto her body, though everything was a little disheveled. Erick knew that he could have put those clothes on perfectly fine; he had purposefully left her askew.

‘It’s starting,’ Poi sent.

Lightning crashed across the world.

Erick sighed, then before Tiza got out the first expletive he [Return]ed them to 10 seconds ago.

- - - -

As the golden lightning of Sininindi fell to the ground in front of Erick, Erick sent Quilatalap a telepathic recording of him killing Tiza. It wasn’t as good as the real thing but Quilatalap’s mood improved immensely—

And then Tiza’s face appeared out of the lightning right beside Asmus and Oozy, and Quilatalap’s brief joy came crashing down into near-Rage once again. Erick didn’t think he was going to disintegrate her this time, though, which was a win, for now.

Tiza was half a second from speaking—

When Erick spoke first, “Shut the fuck up Tiza. Not one word. Void this decree at the peril of your soul.”

Tiza, of course, said, “Just like a Shade. Draped in black and surrounded by Evil, giving ultimatums and forcing the world to obey your whims.”

Erick swallowed her with a [Gate], depositing her into one of the heavily enchanted and [Ward]ed rooms where he kept people sometimes. The Fyuri who had escaped that noble plot over in Greensoil and who started killing those nobles was still down there, but far down on the other side of the compound. They would never know the other was there.

And then Erick turned to Asmus. “Hello, Asmus.” He looked at Oozy. “Hello, Oozy.” He asked the two of them, “Why take over the dungeon? Why kill people to get inside? Why install Tiza down there? Why kill Soltic and Vanya, without letting them escape? You gave them true deaths, didn’t you. So why all that.”

It was a deadly series of questions that demanded good answers.

Erick hoped for the best, but he expected the worst.

Asmus girded himself. With all the dignity of a man trying to stop the inevitable, he began, “House Benevolence has engaged in subterfuge against Storm’s Edge and the Sea Foam Throne through the various seditious parties known as ‘Vanya’ and ‘Soltic’, who are in actuality repros of Archlich Quilatalap and the arm of House Benevolence. Your people have done this with the express goal of undermining all of Storm’s Edge, and now you are here to recover the Lightning Shield that you have stolen from Sininindi’s grasp.” Asmus continued, “Your infiltration started years ago, with the continual murder of the Aroidos, who had been the caretakers of our dungeons without incident for the last several years…”

Ah.

Blatant lies, then.

Erick kept his temper in check because the lies and crazy thoughts flowing from Asmus’s mouth were so beyond the pale of anywhere near this reality that Erick knew something weird was going on. Something very weird.

What struck Erick most was Oozy’s reaction to all of this.

Oozy stood there to the side, looking like an acolyte of the Blue Temple, with his outfit slightly lesser than Asmus’, but not really lesser at all. And the body language was all wrong. It was not the body language of a high-ranking priest standing next to an acolyte. Oozy stood to the side of Asmus, right in line with him.

… His sky-blue outfit was normal enough? Er… No, it wasn’t, actually.

It was too fancy.

White leather boots that were better than Asmus’. Gold chains resembling lightning hung around his neck, filled with divine power. Sure, Asmus wore the robes of a Sailor, and that meant some ornamentation, so Erick hadn’t noticed right away that Oozy was just as decked out. Those rings on the hands—

Erick recognized one of those rings, and he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t recognized it before. It was a Benevolence ring; one used to detect Benevolence markers in the world. Erick was rather sure it was #7, and yup, the inner parts of that ring held that label.

The look on Oozy’s face said more than all the rest of him could, though.

He was resolute.

He looked like a king—

Erick suddenly realized that Asmus had said ‘Sea Foam Throne’ earlier. Erick himself had even said ‘Sea Foam Throne’. What, then, had happened to the Regency? The Regency that had been in power for the last several centuries, ever since Oozy, the last Stormcaller and king of Storm’s Edge, had been transformed into a blood ooze by a Shade and stuffed into a hole in the ground…

The same Oozy who now looked like a king, with a straight back, an even glare, and the willingness to let his underlings speak for him, for there was no real need for him to wield his power in this situation. Not yet.

Asmus had not stopped talking this whole time. Erick had tuned him out because all he was hearing was propaganda; Asmus was getting all of Soltic and Vanya and Quilatlap’s interactions with Storm’s Edge wrong. Erick had attributed those falsities to the casual lies that hostile governments and politicians told each other when they were at war. His words were not the words of someone trying for peace...

But maybe he was trying to interact peacefully? Using the ‘facts’ as he knew them?

—And then Asmus’s words threw Erick for a complete loop.

Asmus stated as though on record, “Which is when the Archlich infiltrated a party set by the Cultists known as the Maryols and made his first truly overt action against the Throne, through the murder and replacement of the original Aroido Tidewalker. It wasn’t till months when we discovered that the original had been replaced by an undead guardian, but by then you had already extracted the Aroidos in an attempt to hide your lover’s murderous dalliances, and then further removed the Aroidos from us by [Reincarnation]ed the whole team—”

“I’m going to stop you there, Asmus,” Erick said.

Asmus stopped.

“I have a question.” Erick asked, “Who sits on the… ‘Sea Foam Throne’ right now?”

His answer should be regent Augustive Glorious Tidewalker, of the Tidewalkers. The man was a good ruler, but everyone in his court held more actual power than him, which is why the church was so strong, why they had been having troubles with the dungeons, and why they needed the Aroido project for the dungeons in the first place.

“That would be me, Erick,” Oozy said, staring hard, even while he tried to affect an air of imperiousness. “And I believe I see the problem now. That black and white dragon eye around your neck. Your dragon form. You are of the Dark, and though it has taken you a while and we have opted to forgo true action against you, I fear we cannot allow inaction to continue, for you’re turning insane just like your God.”

Erick blinked, as though he had heard a joke and he wasn’t sure where the humor was supposed to be.

He turned to the sky and Called, “Sininindi. Rozeta. Koyabez. Phagar. Melemizargo. Fairy Moon.”

Something Red descended instead—

- - - -

Erick remembered everything as the world came back into focus.

“That would be me, Erick,” Oozy said, staring harder than before, as though he was on the precipice of something dangerous and he had to hold on tight. His air of imperiousness remained from the previous timeline, but it had gained a crack. He said, “That black and white dragon eye around your neck. Your dragon form. You are of the Dark, and though it has taken you a while, you’re turning insane just like your God.” And then he added, “Or maybe the Archlich is working magics upon you. How can you even trust him, Erick? He released tens of Shades into the world.”

Erick went through a series of emotions that he kept very well hidden, because he was practiced at this, and he had been ready for something shifty to happen. Oozy was less practiced at this, but he had managed to recover enough in this different timeline that he could add some more words to his previous line of accusations to prevent Erick from calling the gods…

Which would have been bad for Oozy?

What was even more disturbing, though, was that Oozy was trying to talk at Erick like Erick was a part of this… different reality that Oozy had crafted; one where he was the king on the ‘throne’ of Storm’s Edge. The last time Erick had been in the throne room of this land there had been no throne at all. Augustive had even said something like ‘We might not be quite a democracy, but we’re close’. The land of the Regency did not want anyone on any throne at all.

So why was Oozy talking to Erick like he expected Erick to go along with his words? With his version of reality?

There were a few answers.

A god was involved.

This was the anti-meme, in full force.

And Oozy was responsible for the [Area Return], or whatever it was. He had changed his words the second time around, and Erick had allowed the change to go unchallenged. So obviously Oozy did not believe that Erick remembered the other time. But he did.

And then there was the Red from earlier. What had happened there?

Erick rapidly realized that the Red from earlier was a manifestation of power. It was probably a god’s power. So what the fuck had happened to all the rest of Storm’s Edge, where everyone now believed that Oozy was the ‘king’? Was Oozy also a Mind Mage now? Able to make people believe whatever he wanted? Obviously not, or else Erick would have been fucked over already. Oozy was not a Mind Mage, but he was a part of some sort of memetic magic happening here and now.

Had one of the memes that Debby took down logged into Oozy—

Debby had gone out seeking the anti-meme of the Sundering Source—

Oh.

Erick rapidly discarded a bunch of unimportant and cloudy thoughts that were definitely fucking up his entire thinking direction.

That was the Prophesied Storm.

The Sundering Source was here.

The Anti-Meme was here.

Oozy was a conduit for it.

And it was a god, able to change reality as it saw fit.

Erick knew he wasn’t being exposed to Time Magics at all, and back there in the Breaking ritual the Sundering anti-meme had definitely altered reality to suit its needs. It was making reality suit its needs right now. That’s how it had affected all of Storm’s Edge with this change in thought.

How far did this effect go? The entire world? Or just the Archipelago? The Prophesied Storm took place on the Archipelago, so maybe it was just localized?

Erick was rather sure the Lightning Shield around his wrist was… Somehow responsible for allowing him to remember reality as it should have been, instead of how Oozy was making it exist.

Because Oozy was doing this.

So what does ‘Oozy’ want?

“What do you want, Oozy Stormcaller, King of Storm’s Edge? Because what I want out of this is Quilatalap’s forgiveness from the Pantheon, or at least Sininindi’s vote for forgiveness.”

“We will grant him immunity from prosecution here, but The Goddess’s decisions are her own,” Oozy said, solidly. “Now give me the Shield.”

Erick narrowed his eyes. “You give me that Benevolence Detection ring on your finger first—”

Red sparked across the world.

- - - -

“We will grant him immunity from prosecution here, but The Goddess’s decisions are her own,” Oozy said, solidly. “Now the only question that is left is what happens to the Shield.”

So this is what it was like being on the other side of a [Return].

How, exactly, did Erick become able to see this happening, anyway? This ability was not unique. Verrod and Quilatalap and even Tania Webwalker back before she allowed Erick to kill her, all of them had been able to sense when someone used [Return] in their area. Erick could barely sense that sort of thing at all, and he had tried. But here he was, fully cognizant of all Time shenanigans in his area, and rather easily, too.

Erick said, “The Shield stays with me, Oozy. House Benevolence and Storm’s Edge will work out these spurious accusations you have lodged against us in a court of law, and we will find out exactly how deep these evils go.”

Oozy narrowed his eyes.

Red Sparks revealed themselves all across the world like Erick was standing at the bottom of a red ocean and he hadn’t even known it until now.

Time [Return]ed to the past.

- - - -

Oozy said, solidly. “Now the only question that is left is what happens to the Shield, and you will not be keeping it.”

Erick said, “I will be keeping the Shield since it was a product of Quilatalap’s work, and you have no claim to its power. I will, however, give Tiza back to you.” With a wave of his hand and a dumping of a [Gate], Tiza Nindi was once again on the solid stone grounds beside Oozy and Asmus. Oozy, as Erick suspected but did not know, seemed to become relaxed a fraction. Oozy obviously wasn’t in full power here in Storm’s Edge, and he needed Tiza, so Erick had given her back as a measure of good faith, but really it was more like a lizard dropping its tail. Erick needed to regroup elsewhere. Tiza, for her part, was not happy. The Head Priestess of Sininindi began to vigorously yell, but Erick spoke over her, “You are a thorn in the sides of all good people, Tiza. By all rights you should be dead and your evil influence on Sininindi purged from this world, for I have done nothing but good things for everyone in this world, including for you—” Tiza was screaming at him. Erick tried, “Shut the fu— Fine. You can’t be civil? You murder Vanya and Soltic and try to murder me and mine in the dungeon? Shut the fuck up. [Stop].”

Time Magic enveloped the space around Tiza and she froze. Her noise stopped with her. With Tiza here and yet not, Erick briefly wondered exactly how much these Red Sparks had fucked her up, and how much of this antagonism was her own fault. Oozy was behind a lot of this happening right now, for sure, but he was no mastermind, and he had not been here since the beginning… Er.

Wait.

He had been here since the beginning.

He had been at Sea Foam Manor for the last few centuries, and before that, he had been locked and secured in the dungeons of the Regency’s castle. When Erick [Reincarnation]ed him and gave him an Empathy, all of that had been odd, probably because of these Red Sparks in the air. Unknowingly, that is why all that happened…

The scope of how bad this was was a lot larger than Erick was able to deal with right now.

He needed to regroup.

Oozy needed to regroup, too. He was very new at controlling whatever power he was controlling, but even with his newness, he was in control of a lot. He was at the very least a source of memetic and anti-memetic magic, which was terrifying. Perhaps Oozy wasn’t fully in control, either, which was even more terrifying.

As those thoughts crossed Erick’s mind and Oozy wasn’t able to read his mind —thank the gods!— Erick still managed nonchalance.

Erick sighed, and said to Asmus and Oozy, “Tiza Nindi is your problem. You can [Dispel] that with a good try later, at your leisure. I will not be speaking with her anymore. Now! Regarding the issue of the Shield. In light of the horrors you have inflicted upon stealing the work of Quilatalap for your Grand Dungeon, which includes murders and otherwise, this is where these talks end. I do not believe that Quilatalap killed anyone in your power here, in Storm’s Edge, because his goal was always to gain acceptance from Sininindi, and killing people would be infinitely counterproductive to that. SO! That is that on that. How do you want the rest of this conversation to go? We can either talk through lawyers, or lightning; it is your choice.”

Erick could easily tell a few of Oozy’s goals. He wanted the Shield. He wanted to solidify power. He wanted everything. Erick wasn’t sure what had happened to the man to make him end up this way, but Erick was sure that the Empathy he had placed into the former blood ooze had been burned out of him, otherwise he would have noticed that Erick was reading him like a book and steamrolling right over him.

Being able to experience these Red Rollbacks as Oozy cast them was the only way Erick knew any of this, though. Without that this entire situation would have devolved into fighting… Which Erick would have won anyway, right?

It would have started the Prophesied Storm, but… That was fine?

Well. No. Not fine. Millions would have died; that’s what the Benevolent Sky was saying.

Erick chose to trust that Sky, and so he chose to get out of here with what he wanted, and nothing else.

Oozy decided to cut his losses, too, since he was getting out of his depths. “Fine. You’re dismissed, Wizard Flatt, and you can take your Local Area Gate Network with you.”

Asmus had stood to the side after Erick dismissed him, to watch the proceedings without passion. But at the mention of the LAGN, Sailor Asmus looked hard at Oozy, trying not to say anything. A moment of utter silence passed. Oozy began to sweat a little, as the full realization of his fuckup dawned upon him. So far the fight had just been with words, but the removal of the LAGN was the removal of the gateways to the entire rest of the world.

Erick allowed his own eyes to go a little wide. “… Are you sure about that?”

Oozy tried, “You’ll reduce your monetary gains by half and remit that to Storm’s Edge.” Oozy stared for a moment, then he nodded, as though his decision had been the correct one.

Erick allowed some of his rage to come forth. “You know what. No. I’m just going to cancel your network and move it over to another island. How’s about that? How about the Freelands become the center of the Archipelago— You know what! I’m going to do exactly that. Goodbye, Oozy. Have fun with your ruined kingdom.” Erick opened a [Gate] to leave—

Red filled the air.

- - - -

Erick felt himself speaking, “We can either talk through lawyers, or lightning; it is your choice.”

Luckily, Erick hadn’t fucked up that lead into this new timeline.

Oozy spoke like a king, “We will be talking through official channels, Wizard Flatt. Good day.”

Erick nodded, then he opened a [Gate] and swept him, Quilatalap, and Goldie up in the ring of soft white lightning.

- - - -

They landed at Ascendant Mountain, on the Throne of Melemizargo. Erick shut the [Gate] behind them and shuddered. The sky was caught between shades of blue and purple in the twilight morning, and the Throne was a white disk that was also blue this early in the day.

Erick stood tall, his eyes filled with Sight as he began singing to the mana,

“A time, a space, a sacred brace

“Enacted here; Benevolent gr—”

“DON’T.”

Threads of power unraveled fast, like the breaking of a crystal reality. Everything and nothing shattered as Erick’s Wizardry fell out of the air and Benevolence turned to wisps of spent mana, to turn into glitter and thick air, and then nothing as it all fell back into the manasphere.

The sky darkened. The morning retreated.

Melemizargo took his throne.

The Dark Dragon God of Magic commanded Quilatalap and Goldie, “You may leave.”

Goldie and Quilatalap were already on their knees, but now Goldie turned to shadows and Quilatalap flickered away with much stronger magics. Erick was angry at their dismissal.

“I wanted to tell them, Melemizargo.”

“I know you did.” The world turned Dark, and now it was just Erick standing before a massive black dragon, with little difference between the black and the edges of that large dragon. Melemizargo looked down at Erick, but he did not look down at him at all, as he said, “And in doing so, you were about to confront the anti-meme with Wizardry, which would have been a disaster for you and the world. Believe me, I have tried that before. It never goes well.”

Erick rapidly figured out a few things, but he wanted to know more. “Has he actually switched realities on me, like a god? Or has he merely unleashed memes and antimemes across Storm’s Edge, changing the world at his whim through magic?”

“ ‘Has he colored the world Red, or has he colored the world Red?’ You are asking the same question two different ways.”

“Has he altered reality as you did with the centaur/fae/book worlds? Like you altered the world as a god.”

“Oozy is certainly no god, but there might be a god out there, working through him.”

Erick felt his stomach drop. “Oh fuck.”

“Outer Gods working their direct, divine wills upon Veird is not something to worry about for multiple reasons. I will go over the majority of them.” Melemizargo said, “We have tens of gods here on Veird, and they agree to the God Pact, and so the reality of Veird is settled with more power than whatever sort of power the Red Sparks have.

“Whatever is out there is not able to get to us through our own combined divinity, which, now that you bring the subject up, is likely why Veird has survived at all.

“Veird has also survived because I have prevented new gods from rising outside of my power… Which is something that I was doing for good reasons, I am sure, but I wasn’t aware of those reasons until now. I was trying to stop the Red from gaining a true foothold on this land, obviously.

“Aside from my own culling of all new gods, which is a necessity, I assure you, the Red Sparks eat the weakest ones. So if I don’t get to them first, then the Red Sparks gets them.”

Erick was stunned. Melemizargo was just dropping facts on him now like they weren’t anvils aimed at his skull. ‘Oh yeah. No new gods? Sure. That was me. I did that. Didn’t know why until now, though! Whoop-dee-do.’

Melemizargo continued without regard for Erick’s mental narration, “There was a meme kept in a cube of controlled space down in Nergal that was very near becoming a god, but the Mind Mages kept it docile and dead. Since Debby was clearing out threats, I decided that we should infiltrate and kill the thing for real, and so that is what happened, and then I took its malformed spark. The Red Sparks almost got that nascent divinity when we breached those Mind Mage defenses, but Debby was strong, and the Red Sparks failed. They don’t always fail, though. Three sparks have been lost to me throughout Veird’s existence, post-Sundering.”

Erick stared, feeling lost, the world feeling like it was moving under his feet even though he was standing still, and tall.

Melemizargo continued, “Do you remember the nascent Sun God Ikaronal that the dragonkin worshiped, in their land that attempted to be a second Dragonkin Empire? That dragonkin home grew in the Mondariska Mountains, to the west of what would become the Greensoil Republic.”

“… I see you trying to draw me into a conversation to ground me in the here and now, and I accept your offer.” Erick’s heart beat steady as he said, “Yes, I remember. I also remember someone fucked with Kiri’s memory when she got too deep into that study at the Old Dragonkin Expedition Center, in Treehome. Was that these… ‘Red Sparks’?”

“No. That was Fallopolis, enacting my will, trying to see how easy it would be to tempt Kiri onto the path of world domination and complete tyranny by offering her the spark of the Sun. I did this to help her combat the power of the Red Sparks, which originates on the sun. That temptation did not work, and so Fallopolis erased her mind.”

On the sun?

Erick stared for a moment, and then he breathed deeply, saying, “Okay. I’m going to unpack that later and then yell at you a lot. Please continue.”

Melemizargo nodded. “I captured that spark of that near-dead god, Ikaronal, but it was a near thing. We had to destroy that entire empire for me to take that divinity from the Red Sparks.

“I believe the Red Sparks are going after Sininindi’s divinity next, for Oozy is surely an empowered soul of the Red Sparks. I don’t believe he is a Champion, and I don’t believe he is even a proper Paladin, for only gods can do that, and that fact, combined with the fact that the Red Sparks are still trying to capture the divinities of gods, means that the Red Sparks is not strong enough to change the reality of this land overmuch.

“But it can do Time Magic on a grand scale.

“It might be a proto-divinity. But since it erases its presence, it will never rise to more than that, and so it cannot challenge the God Pact, but since it is still a very worrying presence, I still try to keep all stray divine sparks I find growing in my backyard.”

Erick sighed. “Okay. This is a lot.”

“Yes, it is a lot. Personally, I am overjoyed that I am finally able to talk to you as a real person, and there is a lot of ground to cover. But I understand the scope of the horror dawning in your mind. I can shrink the full breadth of my desired conversation today to a few more words, if you wish.”

“I do want that.” Erick sat down on the ground. Ophiel moved to sit on his lap and Erick hugged the little guy. Erick had often felt way out of his league here on Veird, but he always felt able to rise to the challenge. That was not the case this time. The more he thought about the scale of this ‘Red Sparks’ thing and the ‘on the sun’ thing, the more he felt small. “Let’s end this quickly, please.”

Melemizargo nodded. “This topic of ‘Gods and settled realities’ is a very large conversation that routinely took up 10-year long stints in the reputable arcanaeums of the Old Cosmology, and those people never truly learned all that gods could do with settled realities, so I will end that thread of conversation with one more thing before moving on. The gods of Veird are stronger than whatever god-like thing out there, beyond the Edge of the Script, causing the Red Sparks to flare and jump at every mention of its ‘godly’ nature, and at every mention of the Red Sparks themselves. For now, and for a very long time, the Red Sparks have been trying to tear down this world, and we have succeeded against them, even though we don’t even know them.

“That fact should remain true for a while longer. Centuries or millennia more. But let us not get too comfortable. I once told Debby that you and Jane fell to this world through Fate, and Fate has seen you through a lot, but Fate has tried to fight against the Red Sparks before, and it has failed before. Don’t get cocky, Erick.

“Moving on.

“I want to congratulate you, and warn you deeply.

“You have become 65%-ish immune to the Red Sparks, and that Shield is granting you another 50%-ish immunity. It is likely impossible to become fully immune to these Red Sparks while you are not a True Wizard. The Red Sparks are the things that killed Debby. That is the anti-meme which may or may not have something to do with the Sundering.

“As for the warning: As soon as you are seen by a Mind Mage, you will spread the Sparks among the entire Crossing. I am not sure what this will do. It might cause the entire Crossing to fail, which is unlikely. It will surely cause the Mind Mages nearest to you to forget you, which is at a minimum of what might happen, and what usually happens. And as for the best possible outcome, the Red Sparks might try to affect the entire world, since you’re so well connected to the world and the people, and as an immune response, the entire Script will fight it off, unveiling the Red to all these small gods and Relevant Entities… But this might be a bad thing, too, for that would surely cause the Red Sparks to do some Wizardry.

“Know this, too:

“This Red Spark threat was only ever going to end in Grand Wizardry.

“So choose the time and place for that event, and be prepared.” Melemizargo breathed deep, and then relaxed, as he spoke a bit more happily and sadly at the same time, saying, “I am sorry for the rough treatment Debby suffered, but she went out a hero, and through her, Solomon and your man Poi might achieve immunity as well in the coming weeks and months. You were further along and would have gotten here eventually, and sooner than the others, but Debby’s actions also helped you get here, and sooner than I expected. Right now it’s just you and I against the entire world of Red Sparks, against this enemy which has attacked Veird since the very beginning, which has caused me insanity and the entire world pain for a very long time.

“You have seen the common actions of the Red Sparks so far; erasing people from memory, turning back time to make the world worse than it was before. But you have not seen the worst of it, like when it caused the Death of All Halves, The Rage of the Orcols, the insanity of my own Clergy for a very long time until most recently, and more. Don’t confront it directly, Erick. Even talking about it openly is a confrontation of a sort.”

… Erick lay down on the white stone floor.

He had puzzled together most of that, but to have Melemizargo confirm all of those puzzlements…

He stared at the sky, and he had a think.

Melemizargo remained, silent.

Ophiel moved to stand on Erick’s chest, to chirp at him. “Dad okay?”

Erick patted the little guy. “I’m okay, Ophiel. I’m adjusting.” Erick sat up and held Ophiel in his lap as he looked at Melemizargo. “Is Ophiel immune?”

“Through you, and for now. Yes. Yggdrasil is also somewhat immune on his own for whatever arcane reason of which I can only guess, which includes a combination of having many bodies, an over-sapience that will rival gods someday, and through his own developing divinity due to Xoatism and Benevolence and various other factors. Ophiel will not be immune once he separates; he is a much more normal [Familiar]. In both cases it would be better for Ophiel and for Yggdrasil if they were to be separated from you as soon as possible, because they are both your weak points and your strengths. When a person cannot see the Red Sparks, the Sparks do not affect that person as much. Meanwhile, your senses are spread across the entire world through your [Familiar]s, and so you are both more vulnerable to the Red Sparks due to an overabundance of possible infection points, and less vulnerable because Benevolence Itself seems to be developing an immunity to the Red Sparks.

“So not to put too fine a point on it, but if you wish to forestall the eventual reckoning, then you should give birth to your [Familiar]s sooner, rather than later.”

… Erick took a moment, then said, “That’s the Prophesied Storm in 4 months.”

“You can probably still hold on to Yggdrasil for a while longer, but Ophiel needs to be born as soon as possible.”

Erick conjured a chair for himself, then sat down in that. He looked up at Melemizargo, and asked, “Please explain everything.”

“Are you sure?”

“No. But I need more information. Are the Red Sparks the Sundering?”

“I do not know. Possible. 60% possible. So let us start at what I do know, which are the various triggers to avoid a [Return] by the Red Sparks…”

- - - -

Several hours and no time at all later, Erick walked down the road from Melemizargo’s Throne, through the shadeling town of Ascendant Mountain. Inhabited crystal towers rose all around him, though he didn’t allow anyone to see him. Not right now. He was cloaked in a bend of light, his ‘sun form’ held tight against his body. Ha! A ‘sun form’. How deeply was Kirginatharp affected by these Red Sparks?

The ‘Killing Sun’!

A hundred other small events, all Red, all big and small.

The Stat known as Strength was even crimson colored under the Script. Melemizargo never mentioned it, but Erick wondered if that coloring and the popularity of Strength-based builds over magic-based builds was due to the influence of the Red Sparks. But then again, the makers of the Script had made it so that magic simply wasn’t as strong as it had been in the Old Cosmology, which was why Strength was so prevalent… But maybe that was the influence of the Red Sparks.

Or maybe the trauma of the Sundering and the aversion to Wizards was just logical.

… Only a Wizard could ever truly challenge the Red Sparks, though...

Once the veil had been pulled back, Erick started seeing a lot of things that he never saw before. His paranoia was ramping up, higher and higher, and Erick realized this, so he tried thinking more calmly, but it wasn’t working too well.

He couldn’t confront the problem, either. Melemizargo had explained that quite clearly.

… or at least he couldn’t confront it right now.

He and Melemizargo had spoken for a long time, but only minutes had passed out here. Talking in [Hasted Shelter]s and then not doing anything right afterward were one of the easier ways to ensure that the Red Sparks didn’t fight back, since the enemy was a time-based, long-view sort of enemy. Changing locations fast, hiding in the Dark, being underground where the sun never reached… All of these worked a little bit, but not completely. The Red Leviathan on the sun could not read minds, but it could prognosticate rather well.

Another way to avoid seeing the enemy was to avoid seeing the Red Sparks. Erick could easily tune his All-Seeing Eye and see those Sparks, but he chose not to, because reacting to the Sparks let the Sparks know you were there.

When he did turn on his All-Seeing Eye, though, he saw Red Sparks crawling all over his Lightning Shield. Which was expected. That was why Oozy had wanted the Shield so badly. Thankfully, the Red Sparks couldn’t act so brazenly openly, or else Oozy wouldn’t have needed to rollback the area and retry that conversation with him so many times.

The Lightning Shield would be a point of contention for Sininindi, though, so Erick was dreading that conversation.

A lot of conversations would become difficult, now.

Erick walked and thought, invisible under the light of the sun, in the shadows of crystal. Occasionally he glanced outward with his All-Seeing Eye turned to fullness and he Looked through Ophiel and Yggdrasil. He saw Red Sparks drifting in the air, in the far distance, and in all parts of the world.

Mostly, those Sparks did not touch Yggdrasil, or Ophiel, or Erick.

Those that did swing Erick’s and his children’s ways were matched by similar flickers of soft white lightning, like an encapsulating aura of white, and the sparking Red magic went through Ophiel and Yggdrasil and Erick like they weren’t even there. This, then, was the ‘immunity’ Erick was building up to the Red Sparks. It wasn’t perfect immunity, though.

Occasionally those ‘capsules’ of Benevolence broke open and the Red multiplied hard, but in those cases the response was either a larger jolt of cleansing Benevolence, or the Red came through Erick’s [Familiar]s to Erick himself, where the Red Sparks soaked into the Lightning Shield, and were destroyed.

So that was good news.

More good news followed. Erick had already checked on the Benevolent Sky, and the Storm was now 5 months away. It was quite disturbing to see that the Red Sparks were inside that event 5 months from now, though. As for other good news, the Red Sparks were not in every prophesied problem. Only several of the largest problems, almost all of them occurring beyond the Opening Of Worlds, when Yggdrasil started colonizing the planets of Veird’s system.

Thanks to current revelations, Erick saw why there would be problems beyond Veird now.

The Red Sparks would be able to infect new worlds at their very beginning.

Sure, there was no proper manasphere beyond the Edge of the Script, and thus all the mana out there was barely able to do any real magic —which was probably another reason why the Red Sparks were so weak— but as proven by Erick and other planars, you could still use mana outside of a proper manasphere. You could still cause problems in other worlds. And you could certainly plant Red Seeds onto the otherwise barren worlds of this system, which would sprout the very moment a proper manasphere took hold.

And so…

Erick needed to combat that eventuality, and he needed to use softer power to do it, otherwise the Red Sparks would work against him through impossible angles.

At least he could see the enemy now…

And Erick was already formulating a plan. It was not a good one and he could adjust on the fly, but it might work. As he stepped down into the empty clearing outside of the slime dungeon grove, Erick felt that maybe… Maybe this plan would work?

He needed to both decrease the influence of the ‘Red Leviathan’ on the Killing Sun —which he had pointedly not looked at, at all— and he needed to avoid the Red Seeds on the other worlds, and he needed all of the gods of Veird on board.

The first problem was… extensive and difficult.

For the second problem, Erick already had a possible solution. Or at least the beginnings of one.

The third problem would be… difficult. The main problem with involving the gods right now would be getting himself labeled as ‘yet another crazy Wizard, influenced unduly by Melemizargo’… but since he could see the Red Sparks and the gods could not, then…

Difficult.

But! Erick smiled a little. He never wanted to be a tyrant anyway, and a plan of soft power was inherently better than a plan of strong power when confronting big, systemic problems. Or at least it was until you got in range of murdering the actual problem. Then quick action worked the best.

Erick sent off a quick information packet to Poi which included exactly what Erick felt it could include, and not a bit more—

‘I’ll dissect that in a moment, Erick,’ Poi sent, ‘But for now there are about 17 different emergencies of varying levels happening right now, and you vanishing for an hour did not help.’

‘Okay. List out the major ones.’

‘The Sea Foam Throne is demanding the Shield.

‘There are five concurrent Shade problems happening across the world, and Fallopolis is trying to work with Burhendurur and Mox to solve those problems, but it’s not going well.

‘And there’s a Benevolence ring missing from storage.’ Poi stressed, ‘No one understands how that could have possibly happened. At least the Prophesied Storm is now 5 months away, but Teressa and Aisha are saying that it looks worse than it did before. Bigger.’

Erick heard, understood, and then sent, ‘The ring is unimportant. I know where it is. None of you will be able to find it so give up on that task for the next 6 months. Tell Fallopolis to come here to the slime dungeon. And tell the Sea Foam Throne to suck my dragon cock and choke on it. Tell them that exactly.’

Fucking fuck them. ‘Sea Foam Throne’. Like the Sea Foam Manor which Oozy lived in? He turned that memory of his home into his throne, then. Or at least he took the name and now everyone believed the throne of the Regency was the ‘Sea Foam Throne’ now. Fuck him.

Fuck Sininindi, too.

‘… Uh. Did something happen? You aren’t normally… Hmm.’

‘What I can tell you is in the packet, Poi. Open it now. Nothing bad should happen, for it is highly curated, but you’re going to eventually need to cede your Overseer of Mind Mages to someone else for the duration of this coming everything.’ Erick mentally shrugged, then added, ‘Or you just won’t be able to be near me at all.’

‘… One moment.’

Erick waited.

Poi came back with, ‘That told me less than nothing. I have more questions than you have given me answers. As far as ceding my Overseer position, that is not necessary. I will be able to mentally shield myself from listening to you, which will be a better proposition.’ With an uncomfortable tone, Poi said, ‘That’s going to be really weird, though—’ Poi’s voice cut. He came back. ‘The Sea Foam Throne wishes for you to contact Sininindi.’

‘I can do that.’

‘They also wish to formally tell you that they did not like your uncouth suggestion.’ Poi sent, ‘I’ve taken the liberty to clean up their language, obviously.’

Erick chuckled.

- - - -

Erick stood at the edge of a spit of land that wrapped around a storm-tossed cove.

At least Everbless was the same as he had been before Oozy came to town. Yggdrasil’s brother inhabited his massive cove as normal, looking like a grey banyan with a cloud for a canopy and heavy vines trailing down from that cloud, covering kilometers of space. He would eventually fill the cove and become even bigger than that, but his thunderhead canopy was already rising high, high into the sky, like a proper thunderhead. He even flashed with white lightning here and there…

He was not the same as he had been.

He flickered with Red Lightning and there were Red Fruits in that cloud canopy.

Those were the Red Seeds that Melemizargo had theorized must exist as a part of the Red Sparks’ journey to take over the solar system. Or maybe they were backups? Maybe the Red Leviathan hadn’t taken over any of the other planets out there in space, and the Leviathan was working overtime to get that done before Yggdrasil was ready.

This fact called into question Erick’s whole idea of needing to put a seal on Yggdrasil in the first place.

Had that seal been his idea? Or the Red Sparks’ idea?

The other gods had agreed to it, but Erick had been the one to demand it, and because he wanted to control Yggdrasil’s growth, to make sure he was a proper good person. Which, looking back on it, was incredibly selfish of him. You didn’t raise children in chains and expect them to turn out right, right?

… But Yggdrasil turned out okay, anyway…

But did he?

Erick needed to spend a lot more time with Yggdrasil. He was always off on his own, doing his own thing, and yes, Erick was always there for him and he made sure Yggdrasil was completely aware of all the various strings attached to him, as well as to Erick himself, and all of that. There was no such thing as ‘True Freedom’. Elemental Freedom had been Banned, and for good reason. True Freedom was anarchy and death and the rise of tyrants and people who mirrored the Shades in all but name.

Hierarchy always developed in some way. Even the basic family unit held hierarchy; from parent to child when the child is small, and then as equals, and then for children to help their parents in their old age. A peaceful world was one where the people at the top did what was best for everyone below them, and the people below those at the top kept the people at top in power; it was the mandate of the masses.

Yggdrasil understood that… Erick was pretty sure.

And now Yggdrasil was transforming from child to adult, and he wanted his restrictions lifted… Which was fine! Erick was on board with that. And so, Erick had ‘woken up’ from his [Onward] and began working to make that happen for Yggdrasil.

That release of Yggdrasil’s seal was still in the works, though.

Even after that seal was to be released, Rozeta would re-craft the seal to prevent Yggdrasil from being able to make world seeds, and Erick and Yggdrasil had agreed to that. But, if Erick kept to that timeline of 89 more years of Yggdrasil being unable to make seeds, then the Red Seeds from Everbless would make it out into the solar system and plant themselves on the other worlds out there, giving the Red Leviathan at least… Maybe 50 years? Of unimpeded growth before Veird began to spread? Erick wasn’t sure about that.

He was sure that would need to either clip these Red Lightning Fruits or fully un-seal Yggdrasil.

Both solutions carried problems of their own.

Erick was in a prognostication war, too, which meant there would be no actions taken right now, or even in the near, determinate future. Vague plans later that could change on a whim were preferred.

As Erick stood on the spit of land jutting out from around Everbless’s cove, the sea surged upon the rocks, sending sprays of saltwater into the air, and the sky flickered with gold and red lightning, with a few white sparks coming from Everbless himself. Everbless’s tentacled [Scry] eye was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Sininindi, or anyone else.

So Erick got the ball rolling as he spoke to the sky, “Hello, Sininindi. I hear you wish to talk.”

A wave crashed against the rocks, sending a plume of water higher than all the other times. Lightning fell in the distance. In the falling of saltwater and the rush of storm winds, Sininindi stepped onto the rocks in front of Erick. Her sailcloth-wrapped human body was five meters away from Erick, but she was a lot more than that; she was everywhere, in every drop of seawater and in every gust of wind.

She did not look angry.

This was a surprise. Surprises were not good right now.

Sininindi said, “I want to fix this rift before it widens.”

“… I would also like this.” Erick couldn’t say what he actually wanted to say, because he was in a prognostication war, and those things were touchy at the best of times, so he added, “But I believe something rotten is happening here in Storm’s Edge, so I will not be giving you back the Shield right now. Your ‘king’ Stormcaller is playing some sort of game with me and he killed Vanya and Soltic in order to do that. He also took over the dungeon that Quilatalap made for you, without any sort of talk with House Benevolence, or me; his solution was to go straight to killing.” Erick gestured toward Everbless, adding, “And I haven’t seen Everbless’s avatar at all since I came here earlier today. What is wrong with our son, Sininindi?”

Sininindi’s face was softer than usual as she looked at Erick, and asked, “How deep in the Dark have you gone, Erick? So far that you went through the other side and came out someone else?”

“… What?”

As Sininindi’s face fell a fraction, Erick suddenly realized he was already in the Red Sparks’ trap. He had taken Oozy’s statement earlier of him going insane as the ramblings of a tyrant madman, but to hear Sininindi say it, too...

The Red Sparks were going to discredit Erick by making him look insane through the reality altering of this world.

It had probably done the same during that Atomic War, and during… Everything major in this entire world. Every major event that could have led toward something better happening, was instead twisted into something worse.

But how? How could the Red Leviathan do that? It wasn’t doing Mind Magic, because if it could then it would be reading thoughts and acting that way. The most Mind Magic it could do was to daze people at important moments—

Oh.

Erick realized why Particle Magic allowed Melemizargo to wake from his insanity.

He realized something he had already known, but the depth of that knowledge had been hidden from him until now.

The God Pact allowed the gods to stabilize the collective reality of this world.

But Particle Magic and a Particle understanding of this New Cosmology was where quantum effects and gravity fields and the Many Worlds of this new reality took place. Those were the ‘mana’ of this New Cosmology, while the mana of the Old Cosmology was based on different elemental realities overlapping the main Dark.

Two different sets of fields, the Old made of mana, this New made of particles, which were both discrete things and simple wavelengths of reality.

Melemizargo had spoken of Other Realities as real only when observed, so here, now, was the natural result of the Red Leviathan observing those other realities and drawing targets into them.

Because the Red Leviathan was playing a much, much larger game against Erick than a simple prognostication war. This wasn’t a ‘war’ for the Red Leviathan. Veird was the Red Leviathan’s fishery, and you don’t go to war with the fish you raised. You simply eat what you want, and if anything gives you trouble, you remove it as easy as plucking a fish from a lake.

Sininindi said, “Oozy Stormcaller has been your friend for a decade. Storm’s Edge and my clergy have been allies of yours for as long as you have been here on Veird. And then you send Quilatalap here, at my request, and do everything you can to hide his murders and experiments, and you still want me to forgive him. But he hasn’t changed at all, Erick. You wanted him to change, and he appeared to change for a while, but he did not. He came here and he made copies of people in the dungeons and sent the copies out to get more people to come in, all the while he soul spliced and abomination’d every person who had the misfortune to fall within his sight. And now he releases ancient Shades into the world. The Archlich is dragging you down into the Dark, and if you cannot see that then I fear that Melemizargo’s insanity is finally affecting you…” Her voice trailed away. And now her anger came back, her eyes flickering with Red. “I could have forgiven you your foibles, but I cannot believe you would ask why Everbless is not talking to you. You attacked him. You might had been defending yourself from his own attacks, but he is a child, Erick. You don’t burn children to teach them lessons. The scars still haven’t healed, even 6 months on.”

Erick’s heart sank.

And then he glanced to Everbless, and saw where his bark was darker in places. Maybe those were burn marks? Erick wasn’t sure.

Sininindi said, “Tiza is taking it the hardest of us all. She used to be a great friend to you, Erick. Now, all she has is fury for what you have done and the path you are walking.”

It was a good thing this was so unnerving, because otherwise Erick would have laughed at that.

He almost laughed at it anyway.

This was all so ridiculous.

He had obviously been moved into a side dimension, or something. Or maybe the whole world had been moved around him? Erick wasn’t sure which was more crazy, or how to solve either of them. The first had at least one solution, though; become a True Wizard. True Wizards weren’t affected by the magics of others unless they allowed those effects to happen.

So.

Erick needed to get on that.

His previous plan to eventually fight the Red Leviathan was still workable… If he could get himself out of this situation. He could probably do that, right? Just a matter of shoving himself back to his home dimension; his home wavelength… Would that work? Sure; seemed plausible. Seemed like 90% of the solution, anyway. The mana could fill the final 10%.

As for avoiding this situation in the future...

All you had to do was move far enough and fast enough away from the focus of the Red Sparks and they couldn’t see you, or touch you that easily. Staying in one spot was what the Red Sparks wanted all its victims to do. So all Erick had to do was move far enough and fast enough and secretly enough, and he could… do something.

But first.

Erick played along with the narrative the Red Sparks was feeding him, “Perhaps I am going slightly insane. How would you like me to make it up to you? Ask for a Wizardry and I will do it, Sininindi.”

Sininindi said, “I would prefer to simply have the Erick whom I once called friend.”

“That’s going to take some time, for I have handfuls of Shades to cull and Empathy back into the fold and a thousand other things to do, as well as figure out what Quilatalap is up to.” Erick asked, “Ask for a Wizardry, Sininindi. Tell me how I can help you.”

Sininindi stared, her Red Lightning eyes—

And then she blinked.

Red Sparks spilled from Sininindi and washed away, cloying to everything, except Erick. The Shield ate those Sparks.

With clear eyes, Sininindi stared at Erick, “Fix it.”

… Was she really asking what Erick thought she was asking?

“You’re asking me to… Paradox it all away, and fix the whole mess?”

Sininindi twitched, and then she was two goddesses overlapping in the same space.

One of them was tainted red. She was yelling but her voice was silent. Hateful nothings spilled out from her as she tried to advance on Erick, but she stayed exactly where she was. Gold Lightning held her back, holding her in place.

The other Sininindi was made of lightning and gold. She was the true goddess of Storm and Sea, and she proved that as she intoned, “Time and again, sometimes Wizards are called upon to adjust that which cannot be adjusted through any other means. To win wars without fighting. To create possibilities where there are none. I am calling upon you now to do this most difficult of Wizardry, because something is wrong with this space. Something is wrong with this time. I did not recognize this until now, until I have met you in person, and you brought forth a question that has knocked some proper sense into this fraction of my self.

“I am not whole, and neither is anything else. It has all been eaten away at the edges. That consumption started when you stepped down onto this land, and it will continue until you are gone, for it is coming for you.

“Everbless, our son, isn’t here, and I mistook his absence for some logical thing I could have easily discarded, but that is impossible now. I have no idea why I would ever think that you would harm our son like that, and now, in seeing Everbless’s absence, I see more. Phagar isn’t here, Erick; the arbiter of the God Pact is missing, and that should not happen. The Pantheon has vanished without me noticing. All my people are gone. Everyone...

“All the world is gone, Erick, and the Primal Lightning is closing in.

“This timeline is doomed, and this version of me dies with it.” She raised her arms to the sky and gold lighting poured out of her, reaching high and thundering across the world. Clouds closed in, blocking out the sun, obscuring everything in shadow. The Red version of Sininindi burst away into Static that passed toward the horizon. And then the real storm started. Gold clashed with Red, and Sininindi became the Storm and the Sea, as she said, “Get back to the real world, Erick. Save yourself, and then save everyone else.”

Red Lightning danced across the horizon in every direction, closing in like the corrupting fingers of a distant malevolence. Gold Lightning failed in the light of Red.

Erick did not panic.

The first thing Erick tried was a [Gate], cast softly and surely. It failed. Yggdrasil’s bodies were elsewhere, and yet nowhere; they were inside of Erick, faint, and Elsewhere. Ophiel was only on Erick’s shoulder, and nowhere else. The Script was absent, somehow, and a prayer to Rozeta and Koyabez and Phagar and even Melemizargo returned absolutely nothing, though Erick wasn’t going to wait around to see if that changed.

Erick cast his senses wide and high, as he saw the world with his All-Seeing Eye.

It was a Primal Storm. Primal Lightning. This then, is what traumatized all the gods.

It was easy to see why.

The very world ended beyond the Red Lightning that ravaged the horizon. Gold Lightning tried to fight back, but it was failing. The Red was closing in. The ocean spilled out from fingers of Red thousands of kilometers long, seawater turning to frost in the vacuum of space. Mountains caved and exploded outward as Red passed by. Mana fled beyond the Primal Lightning, swirling into the void. The Storm died in fractions of a second, becoming a wind that was not a normal wind; it was the absolute vacuum of space carrying everything away.

Gold twisted with its final throes.

Erick called out to Elsewhere,

“In realms of peril and despair,

“Where Red Lightning rends void from air,

“I call upon the Storm’s good grace,

“To guide me to a safer place.

“This Path has failed, we lost today.

“Return me now to my old way.”

Benevolence poured out of Erick and filled the world with White, briefly pushing back the Red—

Like a known positive charge meeting a known negative charge, Erick’s Benevolence found the Path that he had been on, and which the Red had taken him from without him knowing. An inner path opened, like the lifting of an eyelid crusted by too much sleep, and Erick Saw his world. He saw Jane and Poi and House Benevolence and Solomon and all the rest.

Erick twisted—

- - - -

White mana puffed away from Erick’s body like the breaking of a spell.

Erick stood upon the spit of land that jutted out from Everbless’s cove and a thousand things happened all at once, but nothing really happened at all. The Script reconnected. Erick felt Yggdrasil. Ophiel spoke up, as though he had been in a daze and he hadn’t realized it. Erick felt Poi reaching for him and there was acknowledgment that something disastrous had almost happened, but then Erick had averted that disaster. No words were actually exchanged, for there was no time.

Sininindi stepped down in front of him.

This time she looked angry, which was much more normal. The sky was normal, and though there was a lot of lightning up there it was all white and gold lightning. Very little Red, and the Red was already retreating. Everbless sat in the cove, as normal, with unburned bark and no red fruits.

Sininindi began, “What the FUCK, Erick. You’re keeping my Shield?”

Erick couldn’t help himself. He smiled. He chuckled, nerves falling away like so much rain off of scales. Sininindi did not like that, her anger flaring, but then Erick truthfully, deeply said, “It’s lovely to see you again, Sininindi.”

Sininindi was briefly angry, a flicker of Red passing through her gaze, but then her eyes were almost completely Gold again. The Red Leviathan had a claw upon her in this God Pact world, but no more than that. Which was good! And then Sininindi’s countenance turned from angry coworker to concerned god, and that’s how Erick knew she was ‘okay’.

Nothing was ‘okay’. Everything was in danger. The Red had Erick in its cross hairs, and he had no idea when the next incident would be, for that is surely what had almost happened. A massive incident.

But Sininindi’s tone held concern, and that was enough for now. “What happened, Erick?”

“I saw something that I cannot tell you about— I’m sorry to be rude, but I have ten thousand things to do. I need to know—” Erick asked, “Who rules Storm’s Edge right now? Has Quilatalap killed anyone that you know of here in Storm’s Edge? How about the whereabouts of Vanya and Soltic?”

As he asked those questions he flicked open tiny [Gate] after tiny [Gate] to check on everything from the state of the House to every location of Yggdrasil to what was happening at Ascendant Mountain. Those initial inquiries all returned normal sights and visions.

Sininindi took a fraction of a moment to narrow her eyes at Erick’s heavy break of decorum with all those tiny [Gate]s, then she rattled off, “The Regency and Augustive Glorious Tidewalker. Quilatalap has been a perfect guest and dungeoneer, and we welcome him to finish the job. Not sure where you went after you got the shield and missed our ceremony time or why you took him away, and so I was concerned about that, but we would have him back to finish the job. Vanya and Soltic are still in there.” She collected herself, stared hard, and said, “And you took my Shield.”

“Okay. That’s fine. Please tell me how you recollect the meeting between me, Tiza, Asmus, and Oozy, inside the dungeon?”

“… Why are you asking after Stormcaller? And you were never at the meeting!” Sininindi huffed, then said, “Tiza sent a request to be allowed in the dungeon to find you, but Quilatalap never answered, and his guardians didn’t let them in, so they didn’t go in. What is going on, Erick.”

That was incredibly concerning. Erick had no clue at all where the ‘break’ in this reality happened where he had been taken from here and ended up at that Ending. Where had he stepped off the Benevolent Path that he had been on? No idea! Maybe it had happened—

It had happened either before Erick stepped into the Breaking Ritual, or just after. Probably just after, when they left the Shadow Dungeon in that unexpected way, just suddenly appearing outside of the Shadow Dungeon entrance instead of actually walking through all the checks that Quilatalap had put up between that Shady place and the rest of the Grand Dungeon. Yup. That had to have been it. Quilatalap had been acting funky, too, talking about how Erick should have made the Benevolence markers a sign to automatically kill someone, and… And Quilatalap had played that off.

Oh.

Okay.

So there’s a bit more existential horror to unpack later.

How had events happened out here? Erick would never know, would he? But he was in his proper world, right?

… Right?

Yes, he was. Yes, he was. Erick had already checked on everyone, and he had even poked a head into the dungeon of Storm’s Edge. Quilatalap wasn’t there, but he was at Ascendant Mountain for some reason.

How the fuck did that happen? Where did the previous reality begin and end?

Oh! Where was Wiloza?

There was Archmage Wiloza Tidewalker, on the walls around the dungeon space, wearing the Benevolence Ring Erick had given her. She was working, and she must not have seen Oozy yet or else she would have sent a message to the House… Or maybe she had seen him, and the Red Sparks had taken that memory.

So the Red Sparks could get around [Benevolence Detection], eh? Well.

Shit.

But then again, Melemizargo had said that Erick’s and Benevolence’s immunity to the Red Sparks was still building, so maybe… It wasn’t okay right now, but it would be okay in the future. Well sure. Sounded fine.

Wizard wars were just gonna be Like That, eh?

Erick breathed. He moved on as best he could. Everyone was alive, and there had been some missing time, and he had done some Wizardry to get back to this proper reality… But he had also had a talk with Melemizargo about the Red Sparks in that Other, abandoned timeline?

Okay.

Just.

Shove those thoughts out of the way for now. It was unimportant—

It was vastly fucking important, but not right now.

Where was Oozy, anyway—

“Ah ha! Found him.” Erick glanced through a [Gate] he had opened above the Blue Temple, just on the other side of Everbless’s cove. Oozy was talking to Everbless’s avatar on the docks where boat tours left to take supplicants to see Everbless from closer.

And his Benevolence marker was gone; his neck was free of white lightning.

So only the Oozy in Other Realities was the… Whatever he was? Okay? Sure.

Oozy was spilling out Red Sparks and some of them were lodging on Everbless, though, but that seemed to be happening to everyone near Oozy, which was in accordance with what Melemizargo had explained. Oozy was some sort of Champion of the Red Leviathan in that other timeline, but here he was just a guy with some Red on him.

Erick closed the [Gate]; he had seen enough. He wanted to tell Sininindi everything, but he was in a prognostication war, and saying too much caused a rollback. So he looked to Sininindi, and tried, “You helped me out a lot in the Breaking of a doomed world, Sininindi. I’m going to be sure to help you, too.”

Sininindi waited for more. “… Is that it? Cryptic Wizard shit?”

“Yes. Apologies.” Erick felt a crash of emotion force its way through his body and out of his face as tears. He couldn’t tell her anything; the Red would not let him. If he pressed, it would rollback this space, and Erick wasn’t prepared to go to war with an enemy with this much power, that he had just met less than a day ago and almost died to. Maybe he could have tried, but every part of him —Benevolence especially— was telling him that beginning hostilities was a bad idea. And so Erick chuckled and sighed. “Apologies, Sininindi. I’m keeping the Shield for now. I will give it back when I can.”

“… I suppose I have been without it for centuries already. I only request it be returned to me before you near the end of your Sundering Search, or before you truly start heading that way, just to be safe.”

“Heard and understood— Oh. Uh. Quilatalap?”

“… Quilatalap has my favor, now. He can return whenever, or not at all if he wishes to be a hermit again. Good day, Erick.”

“Good day, Sininindi.”

Erick felt a rush of small joy for Quilatalap, and then he opened up a [Gate] and left.

- - - -

Erick stood upon the Throne of Melemizargo, white stone stretching out flat until it dropped off and clear crystal towers rose in every distance except the north; the north was clear, with a fantastic view.

Melemizargo was there.

“It appears you encountered something that throws off my understanding of the Enemy. I was there and we did have that conversation, but things got fuzzy after that. I was not aware you were gone until you came back, which may or may not have implications for what happened to you when you [Onward]ed. Congratulations on making it back.”

“Thank you; it was little more than piercing through between this God Pact reality and any other God Pact-declared Element, but different, of course, since the Red Leviathan uses some sort of particle/field-based New Cosmology ‘mana’ which exists outside of the God Pact reality. It is probably not called mana, but I’m going to call it that for now. I am obviously playing off how utterly terrifying it all was as nonchalance, of course.

“Also! I met Primal Lightning. The Red Sparks are Primal Lightning. Yet another terrifying thing! These terrifying things are distressingly more common than they should be, Melemizargo. At least I can more easily visualize how it traumatized everyone, though I am sure my imagination simply falls short, because of course it falls short.

“Anyway.

“It is farming Veird for gods and entire worlds filled with people in those side realities, too. Every single day there are countless apocalypses, just not here. So… I’m not sure if your efforts to stop the sprouting of gods in this reality were the best possible action. Or maybe you did the right thing! The more I learn the more I know I know nothing.”

Melemizargo was a very still Dragon God of Magic.

And then he let out a sigh that filled the world.

Erick added, “Yup. Very terrifying. Also Oozy is the Champion of the Red Sparks in the side-realities, but specifically not in this reality? I’m not sure about that.”

“... I will need to think about all of this.” Melemizargo frowned a little at nothing in particular, and said, “Perhaps it is picking up simple divinity in those side-cullings? Or just… outright taking full sparks? Damnable… trash…” Melemizargo fell silent as his furious white gaze turned infinitely outward.

Erick said, “I’m off again. Probably gonna turn into a bit of a hermit now since the Dark seems safer from the Red than not. Or at least certain Darks. Quilatalap’s was ridden with Red.”

“... I did not see this either. Perhaps… No no…”

The Dragon God of the Dark fell silent again, thinking.

Erick asked, “So how about Verrod? Champion Fallopolis?”

“Oh yes,” Melemizargo said, not looking at Erick. “They’re around here somewhere. Do whatever you want but please be quiet now…” He looked at the horizon, mumbling. “No… Hm. Maybe… Hmm...”

Erick left him to his thoughts.

Down in the shadeling city, Fallopolis was coordinating a worldwide hunt for the new, old Shades. The new Champion of Melemizargo had been at it for hours now with Verrod, Goldie, Lapis, Queen, Treant, and Hollowsaur. The only modern-day Shade missing was Farix, and he had a good reason for being absent. The Professor was at New Brightwater, coordinating from there, working hard to get the Shades out of Ar’Kendrithyst before they could do any damage to Queen Anhelia’s domain.

The world was doing fine, as far as Shades went, and aside from Erick needing to [True Resurrection] a few people here and there across the world and placate a few bruised egos, these new Shades were a long-standing problem to deal with later. Erick did [Blessing of Empathy] all of them, though.

Crying, wailing Shades were easier to manage than homicidal Shades. Truly an improvement, in Erick’s mind.

But he had other things to do, so he left all that to Fallopolis.

- - - -

Erick stepped down into the Dark of the slime dungeon and saw the air was empty of Red Sparks.

It was a relief but also not, for how could anything be a relief right now?

Erick focused on the good.

It was rather comforting to not have any Sparks down here. Erick had no idea why Quilatalap’s dungeon had been filled with Sparks, or why the Red Leviathan clones had been there, or any of all of that, but he’d be getting answers soon enough if Melemizargo happened to gather any answers. Maybe not good answers. But he would have them.

First thing to do, though, was to talk to Solomon, and see about enacting his own plan to ruin the plans of the Red Leviathan forever.

Solomon was practicing aura control with Guile upon a stone platform. Poi and the girls and Evan were at the house, going over various items on the list. Quilatalap was there, which Erick was glad to see; he could stay here for a while, then, and be free of the Sparks. Quilatalap probably wanted to go back to the dungeon at Storm’s Edge, but Erick would try to talk him into staying out of that mess down there until Erick could solve that mess.

But for now, Erick stepped down onto the white stone platform with Solomon.

Solomon looked his way.

And Erick began, “I want to make a clear effort to get you the Lifeblood Heart and to ensure it comes to Veird properly. I have a plan for what you should do afterward, too, in order to get your Jane back. I will help every step of the way.”

Solomon went from tense to utter relief, and he said, “I’m all ears.”