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The plan was simple and yet Erick couldn’t tell anyone about it except for Melemizargo, and he didn’t count. He especially couldn’t tell Solomon, who would be a major part of the plan.

But he tried anyway.

Debby had managed to give Erick more than enough clues that one time, and she had tried dozens of times to tell him more. How could Erick honor that memory if he didn’t try at least as hard as she tried? Even if there was a rollback Erick could just try again, though he certainly didn’t want to get trapped in a collapsing side-reality if he could help it. He promised himself he would stop if things looked to be going that wrong.

There was a question of ‘why didn’t Melemizargo and Debby experience these collapsing side-realities, but Erick had’, but Erick figured the answer to that was rather simple and self explanatory. Melemizargo was not immune to the Red Sparks; he was scarred and the Red Sparks weren’t able to penetrate through those scars. Erick, however, was immune, and thus able to fall off the God-Pact world if he poked at the edges of reality too much.

Erick hoped that wouldn’t happen today.

Sitting on the white stone next to Solomon and the fae fox Guile, Erick began with the safest bet, “I’m rather certain we’re in a continual prognostication war.”

Solomon, since he was Erick, instantly put together way too much.

Red Sparks drifted across the roof of the dungeon, far, far away—

And then Solomon realized even more. And he did nothing. He shrugged, and said, “So what? I don’t believe you.”

… He was lying.

Okay.

Well.

That was one way to get around the prognostication war problem. Erick almost laughed. Prognostication usually only worked an hour or so out. Maybe a few days if the user was really good. The Benevolent Sky worked a bit differently in that it showed possibilities that were highly likely, and how far away those likelihoods were to happen.

Another fact was that truths affirmed and solidified, while lies obfuscated and corrupted.

Erick imagined he and Solomon telling lies to each other that only each other would understand as lies, and they could also act in funny ways afterward, selling the lie to whoever might be watching through prognostication.

Could they really tell lies to each other, and that would work?

Guile picked up what Erick was putting down, too, saying, “Faeries never lie; it’s bad for business, Erick. You shouldn’t lie like this, either.”

… Oh.

Well that was a lie, as well. But a much more interesting one in all the implications it held.

Fairies never lied, but they never told the whole truth, either. They were kind of like pre-Erick Shades in that way.

… Okay. So. Duh.

So this had to be a standard way to talk around a problem. Erick had never considered lying as a valid way to speak, except in very few cases, and neither had Solomon from his expression, and now here they were, getting ready to talk in lies. Like the fae.

… But how stupid were the Red Sparks? Words mattered, of course, but… Perhaps Erick should try [Telepathy] to communicate with Solomon instead? Solomon had already proven capable of ceasing his activities and deciding not to do anything right now, and potentially not ever, and thus the Red Sparks had stopped advancing… if Erick was reading that right, anyway.

And yet, if Mind Magic was the solution to the Red Sparks, then the Red Sparks would have already been defeated. Maybe Mind Magic was readable by outside sources, or something… Or maybe it was the act of communication itself which let the Red Sparks know what was happening, and to correctly prognosticate what would happen next?

Ah.

That made more sense.

The act of any communication at all was visible to the Red Sparks. But the act of actively lying to each other was not a problem. Did the Red Sparks like people lying to each other? Potentially?

Or maybe it just saw all timelines and worked on all of them simultaneously, culling those that it did not approve.

Or maybe the only way anything survived any cullings at all was because of course some timelines survived cullings. The Sundering had ripped through the Old Cosmology over a matter of days, killing an entire universe, but it had still taken days. It was not instant at all.

So it took time to kill…

Oh.

Erick had hit something big in that thought, hadn’t he.

Hmm.

It wasn’t a truly clear thought, though.

Time to clear up some misconceptions.

Erick said, “I don’t want to lie, and I’m not. So I’m backing up before we try that.”

Solomon looked at Erick, then said, “Sure?”

Guile stood down, too. “It is good we are not lying to each other; truthful conversations are much more beneficial to all. Truths support and protect; lies degrade and attack.”

Erick nodded, then he asked Guile, “Were the Elements of the Old Cosmology, those that you could [Gate] through, infinite in density? I knew Elemental Fae had a whole lot of fairies, and your whole civilization is crushed down to 11 Bands of Intent right now, but you used to have infinite, yes? That’s what I mean when I ask ‘were the Elements of the OC infinite in variation?’. Did you have infinite fairies?”

The Red Sparks did not advance.

Erick was glad for that.

Guile tilted his head a little, gauging something, then he said, “It was once theorized that there were as many types of mana as there were people in the Old Cosmology.”

A lightbulb went off.

“Oh! Shit!” Erick exclaimed, “Duh! Yes. Of course. Mana comes from people, so there were only ever as many types of mana as there were types of people— And other living things, I assume?”

Solomon looked at Erick, his mind churning hard as he considered—

A lightbulb went off for Solomon, too.

And still, the Red Sparks did not advance.

Guile looked between Erick and Solomon, then nodded at Erick, slowly saying, “… And some inanimate objects of worship or culture, as well. Certain flavors of ideas and the cultures around them gave rise to mana, and certain types of formations could also produce new types of mana.”

“What about mana from side realities?”

“The only side realities that existed were those dreamed up by people.” Guile said, “It is the same here on Veird, is it not?”

Red Sparks descended, but they only clouded; they did not roll back time.

Okay.

Erick had reached the edge of understanding.

He had learned enough, though. Solomon had, too.

Guile was the weak link here, for some reason. If Guile learned what the two of them learned then there would be a rollback. There did not appear to be a rollback right now, though.

Anyway!

The Old Cosmology did not have infinite mana variations and infinite realities. No matter how many lives and souls and mana makers existed, there was only ever a finite number of realities in the Old Cosmology, because the Old Cosmology did not have infinite people. Even Creation Wizards with their ‘infinite mana’ were only able to produce effectively infinite mana; they couldn’t actually explode with mana, becoming the… precipitating event of a universe, could they?

Could a Creation Wizard become a ‘Big Bang?’

Erick wasn’t sure. He didn’t think so, though.

And that didn’t matter for the concept of ‘infinity’, anyway.

Even this New Cosmology wasn’t ‘infinite’. Or at least Erick didn’t think so. It was just really, really big. Infinity only provably existed in the minds of people with mathematical concepts and maybe in the multiverse, with all its infinite variations.

And that’s why the Red Sparks took three days to destroy the Old Cosmology, while it still hadn’t been able to destroy Veird in this multiversal reality, with its truly infinite Many Worlds.

The very existence of quantum reality prevented the Red Sparks from advancing out of control.

It was a theory, anyway. Just a working theory.

As long as Erick stayed on the multiversal path where the Red Sparks did not win, then they wouldn’t win.

And that was how Erick was going to win.

Erick looked around at the Red Sparks hovering in the air and on Guile and Solomon like tiny mosquitoes, trying to eat but failing to fully consume anything at all. There were a lot more on Guile than there were on Solomon, even with his smaller body. They’d hang around for a while, according to what Melemizargo had told Erick.

So Erick got up, saying, “I’ll have to come back later. You should take a break, too. Maybe work on the plan to get the Lifeblood Heart? I’ll tell you more when I reorganize my own thoughts.”

Solomon got up, more than satisfied by the weirdness of the conversation so far, saying, “I already got some plans for the Heart. I can work on them more, but I was thinking, that if everyone's mana doubles, and if the Heart rides mana waves away from mana producers, then maybe the Script can do some sort of ‘releasing’ from all the life on the planet, in some sort of contained nature— Like. Imagine the world is a vast series of layers.” He conjured a lightward show, as he explained, “If we can get the Heart in the center, or, more realistically, just off center of the Core in all that open space, we can maybe have the entire Script shove mana at it from perfect angles while also sucking away all the mana around the Heart itself. If it absolutely has to move —which Guile believes is the case and I am inclined to believe him because the creator of the Heart wanted it to always move, according to the stories— maybe it can orbit the Core.”

Erick smiled, and said, “That’s a great idea. It might actually work, too— Provided Rozeta can make it work. But I think every single person is underestimating the output of the Heart; it’s supposed to make every single thing around it produce double mana, and that was back when everything was made of mana. When it is translated to the New Cosmology, it might do more than that. A lot more.”

Guile said, “Your assumption has merit, so I have been considering what to bring out of the Dark next, and I believe grabbing a Prime Miner would be beneficial. This Script has been cobbled together from a lot of disparate systems, and though it is robust, it could be better. Such a thing will allow for Rozeta to truly utilize the Script as it could be utilized, making ‘mana vents’ a trivial thing to create, in order to contain the Heart.”

Erick watched as Red Sparks lingered in Guile’s mind and eyes as he spoke. It wasn’t a comforting look. It was almost like the Red Sparks were choosing how this event was happening.

Erick avoided Guile’s suggestion, saying, “I’ll speak to Rozeta about that. She won’t agree, though. She’ll look for a different answer than installing something we got out of the Dark. That’s a pretty hard line for her.”

Guile and Solomon both took this news like they were expecting it—

Without warning, the Red Sparks left Guile and Solomon’s sights and brains, peeling away like so many scabs. This was worrying, but not overly so. If Erick’s previous assumptions about the infinite Many Worlds nature of Veird were true, then perhaps they were strongly outrunning the Red Leviathan right now, and it would take a moment for the Leviathan to catch up.

Maybe it had truly expected its ‘Prime Manaminer’ idea to work?

According to a slight poke through Yggdrasil’s and Ophiel's Sights, the world outside of the dungeon was not breaking down, so that was a good sign. Yggdrasil briefly pushed back, wondering what was going on, and Erick sent a message of worry about the world, but he was also just being paranoid, so there was no real reason to worry.

Yggdrasil sent back a wordless reply of ‘… Okay. Well. Sure. Okay.’

Meanwhile—

Guile nodded, and continued, “There are other options, but the Prime Miner is the best. Other options for helping solve the containment issue are the Grand Cleanser, which is an artifact that controls and balances the mana in a very large space. That is something that could theoretically contain the Heart all on its own and it would not have to be installed in the Core, but I imagine Rozeta would wish to put the Heart somewhere close down there, anyway.”

“Oh. Well. That one seems workable? If such a thing would work under the Script, anyway. Controlling the mana itself is the Infinitesimal Ban, I believe.”

Guile nodded. “Solomon and I had this discussion, too; the Grand Cleanser might not function here.”

Solomon said, “We can still get the Grand Cleanser and figure out how it might work and then try to replicate its functionality here on Veird.”

“And then there’s the Void Well,” Guile said. “That thing was the product of a Lost God’s working to capture the Heart, and it worked for a time. The Order of the Sacred Pulse broke the Void Well and killed that Lost God, so it might not be a good idea to go after that item, but it could work to contain the Heart; it already had once.”

“But there’s a large chance that we’d get the Void Well and the Heart and be in the middle of a large battle all at the same time, all before we’re ready to try for the Heart,” Solomon said, “So that would be bad.”

Guile had no hope in his eyes for this solution, and neither did Solomon, but they were bringing up the option for the Void Well anyway, because it was a good option… But also because Benevolence was guiding them to speak of it.

It was right there.

A glowing white Path through the mana that only Erick could see, and yet which pulled Guile and Solomon along in its wake.

The Red Sparks tried to touch that path, to touch Solomon and Guile, and they did touch them, but the Red Sparks flowed into White Sparks, and the White encapsulated the Red in that touch. Some of the Red got through and tried to poke at Solomon and Guile anyway. It was having greater luck touching Guile, than it was touching Solomon.

If it weren’t for that White Path, Erick would have agreed with their negative statements about the Void Well and the Lost God and the possibility of walking into an instant war.

Guile said, “It’s a bad idea, of course. We’ll think of others.”

“Now wait a second.” Erick said, “We don’t have to get the Void Well, but I do want to know more about it. Void is the Element we’re going to have to use here to contain the Heart, anyway, I’m sure— Well. Actually. I am not sure. I thought Void destroyed everything it touched. That’s how I would use that Element, anyway.”

“Void is the Element of Emptiness; the great hole in the world,” Guile said. “It is most often used to erase things and to set things to nothing, and for the Heart, it was used to great effect to do just that. The Lost God’s Void Well was a specific version of a generic artifact that was used in many different locations to contain and hold many different deadly things. Or good things. Prisons made prolific use of Elemental Void. The Void Well of that Lost God was specially made to contain the Heart, and also to open up the Heart in small ways, to turn mages loyal to the Lost God into archmages, and other such elevations.

“If you wish to ask around about it, that specific Void Well was found on the world of Andonol, in the Bitter Reaches of the Old Cosmology, in a place called the Barrens.” Guile said, “I can tell you the whole story whenever you wish, but it seems you are eager to go elsewhere, and the story is long. It might be a fruitful story though, because the Void Well has only a few of the same problems as the Grand Cleanser; most notably this ‘Infinitesimal Ban’ of the Script.”

Erick nodded. “I look forward to hearing all about that, and more. But now, yes, I gotta go. There’s something I need to talk to someone about.”

Erick left Solomon and Guile there on that stone platform, his brother and his brother’s fae looking a bit more secure in their station. Solomon even looked a bit happy. He had figured out something big, and the Red Sparks hadn’t gotten him, either. He truly was developing an immunity, wasn’t he.

Smiling a little, Erick went back to Melemizargo’s Throne.

- - - -

“So there’s something I realized, and I need to bounce the idea off of you.” Erick asked, “Did you find out anything you wish to share first?”

Melemizargo lounged on his Throne, having reappeared and swallowed the world with Darkness as Erick started speaking to the air.

“You have only been gone for a short while, Erick… But yes. I have discovered a few things. Continue with your own thoughts. We will get to mine in due time.”

“Okay. Good.” That’s what Erick wanted anyway. Erick began, “So! I have made some observations, and because of those observations, I have some theories.

“The Red Sparks are Primal Lightning, but lesser. With this understanding a lot of facts begin to take a whole lot more significance.

“First fact! Primal Lightning was able to destroy an entire universe in 3 days.

“Second fact: The Red Sparks are not able to destroy Veird, but they certainly do try, and they certainly can turn into Primal Lightning in other versions of Veird, to eat away those other worlds.

“So why haven’t the Red Sparks destroyed Veird? Yes, Veird is slightly special in the God Pact stuff and in the pure density of divine power here, and that is what allowed it to survive its trip through the Yawning Voids left by Primal Lightning, but that is likely only part of what makes Veird special. A very big part, I believe, but not the biggest part.

“Perhaps the truly special thing about Veird —these days— is that it now exists in the New Cosmology, and it is full of mana and possibility made manifest through that mana, and this mana does a lot more than anyone ever knew.

“But let us back up a bit. Regarding the nature of the Old Cosmology, I ask you: How many layers of reality were there in the Old Cosmology? An infinite amount of realities? Or just as many layers of reality as there were people and other mana producers?”

Erick waited.

Melemizargo allowed Erick to wait as he frowned a little. “I saw some of your conversation with Guile, and he was mostly correct. There are only as many manas as there are producers, but an individual does produce mana on a spectrum; not on a singular type. Spectrums can be… Well. Not infinite, but highly varied.”

Erick smiled a little. “Still less than infinity, though.”

“A trillion 9s all in a row is still a number less than infinity; yes.” Melemizargo said, “I see where you are going with this, and I disagree—”

“Let me get the whole thought out there, please.”

Melemizargo rolled his eyes. He said nothing.

Erick continued, “So Primal Lightning took time to kill the Old Cosmology, and it probably set up the whole universe for a long time before it actually took that final murderous step, though that last part is just a guess; I’m not sure. I am guessing that the Red Sparks are the precursor to Primal Lightning, like how a static charge builds before lightning strikes. I am guessing that the Red Sparks is trying to set Veird up for a kill, too.

“These guesses are more of a 99% ‘I am sure’ sort of guess.

“The Red Sparks are the precursor to Primal Lightning. The Red Sparks can erase possibilities where people notice it and cause a bunch of other shenanigans with choosing Paths through time, but at the end of the day, the Red Sparks only want one thing: worlds where Primal Lightning comes down from everywhere and tears all of reality apart.

“And here is another theory: The Red Sparks do not care about people seeing its true form of Primal Lightning, because when you see those planet-sized lines of Red Lightning, you’re already dead anyway. That’s why Veird still has memories of Primal Lightning at all.

“But the Red Sparks don’t like people knowing its true nature, so that’s why everyone thinks Primal Lightning is white, and that it looks like Benevolence. There might be something going on with time and redshifting and otherwise, but Red Lightning is Red, and it might just be a choice of the creator. Perhaps Primal Lightning truly is white, though, because of redshifting and Primal Lightning being a physical-yet-magical force and how Particle Magic and Atomic Magic both have brought you fully out of your insanity and otherwise—

“ANYWAY!

“All of that was speculation and I don’t know enough to say why Primal Lightning is red in this New Cosmology and white in the Old Cosmology, but those are some guesses.

“Anyway.

“The time it took to kill the Old Cosmology and how it is failing to kill Veird in a timely manner means a lot.

“Either there is a conscious force holding it back from killing us all.

“Or maybe it is holding back itself, and farming us.

“Or it simply cannot eat us faster than we produce multiple realities.

“I would like to think that because of the malevolence that it displayed in killing the Old Cosmology, that there is no conscious force capable of holding it back, and that it is not holding back itself. Therefore, the only reason it has not eaten us is the only reason left.

“I believe that the most reasonable explanation for why it cannot kill us is because it cannot eat us as fast as we multiply. It was able to act across the largeness of the Old Cosmology, but it is not able to act across the true infinity of this New Cosmology, with its Many Worlds possible explanation for quantum events… And maybe it’s not a true infinity here, either. But the New Cosmology is a bigger infinity derived from Particles than the infinity that was solely derived from individual mana types.

“And because there are so many realities here, all in the mana and in the Many Worlds, and because of the God Pact solidifying this main reality, all the Primal Lightning can do is eat the side realities, as it did to the side realities in the Old Cosmology, the Elemental Fae and otherwise. And so, this God Pact reality continues to exist.

“We’re literally outpacing the End of Everything here on Veird, and only through pure luck and all the gods working together to solidify this God Pact reality— Which I didn’t even know about until Sininindi spilled that secret in that side reality I escaped from, which I’m kinda disappointed in everyone for not anyone telling me about this, but I’m pretty sure that was the Red Sparks’ fault— ANYWAY. It’s only through the God Pact that we’re able to survive at all.

“The original Veird survived the Yawning Void because of the gods and the divine manaminer of the proto-Script, after all. So gods matter a lot. Big, big deal there.

“And Benevolence is helping now, too!

“Benevolence is helping me to find the right Path. That’s what I designed it to do, though I wasn’t aware that’s what I was doing to myself when I did it. It’s already helped me a lot with staying in this God Pact world, and it’s even helped me to see better conversation options now and then—”

“Don’t tell me that last fact. Don’t tell anyone that, ever again. Never. Now continue.”

Erick paused.

Melemizargo was focused hard on him.

… Erick continued, “So all we have to do to escape the Primal Lightning is to leave behind an infinity of death on our way to the future, and I don’t want to do that, but we’re doing that for now, because it was already being done for so long and that’s the only way we survive. But I want to change that eventually. When we can.

“So how do we exploit this scenario in order to change this scenario?

“I had been thinking of opening up Yggdrasil’s seed options early, but that seems disastrous. There are a lot of options I was considering, but the more I think of what I just told you, the more I think I am right, and that any option outside of Veird, without the other gods following close behind, and without countless people to make more mana and more possibilities… All other normal expansion options would fail, and fail hard. Possibly even harming our infinity of Many Worlds here on Veird.

“Our original idea of giving the next world to Kirginatharp and letting the gods slowly move over there with their worshipers would just be asking for that world to turn against this world and for them to kill us all.

“For make no mistake! The Red Leviathan still wants to kill us all. Its malevolence knows no end, and the Primal Lightning is always just on the other side of a quantum event.

“At the very least, we need some more gods. I’m not sure. A lot more gods, maybe— A lot more gods working for the good of us all. And then, when we open new worlds, it has to be a large, quick event, done randomly and without the Red Leviathan able to respond. Something no prognostication event could have ever conceived of as possible.

“I think I want to make a dyson swarm, Melemizargo, and fill every single land with slimes and dungeons and life ever expanding.

“But! If we can do that...” Erick stared back at Melemizargo. “If we go really big, and really stable, I think the Primal Lightning simply won’t be able to keep up with our expanding possibilities.

“That’s most of how we win.

“A more permanent solution will come later. Such a solution will likely involve destroying the sun, but that is just so insane that if I ever suggest such a thing I will be rightly laughed out of every hall of power, and assassins would be right to try and end my life.”

Erick stood strong. He was sure he was right.

Melemizargo was staring hard, his eyes like stars in the black of everything. His voice was an earthquake of possibility, “Explain this ‘Many Worlds’ concept. I have not heard of it before.”

Erick was absolutely, 100% sure he had told this concept to others before, especially around his [Teleport] experiments and his Worldly Path. Melemizargo should have been listening. But the Red Sparks were always active, and Melemizargo had already proven himself as less-than-omniscient. Honestly, the fact that Erick was here, now, talking about this stuff with Melemizargo, was proof that everything was getting a whole lot better, and rapidly, too.

Just 13 years from Erick inventing [Call Lightning] and Particle Magic, to here.

“The Many Worlds idea begins with quantum physics. Now I’m no physicist, and mana helps me bridge that final gap a lot, but the basic thing to understand with quantum interactions is that every interaction that is possible, actually happens, or it doesn’t happen, and for every split like that another reality is created. One where the photon spins down after an interaction instead of up, for example…”

Erick spoke for a while about quantum events, and particles, and the multiverse of the New Cosmology, and what ‘mana’ might exist in this New Cosmology, and how he had no idea what to call that ‘mana’, but it certainly wasn’t Veird’s mana.

Melemizargo was attentive, then judgmental, then concerned, and finally Erick finished.

“I disagree with the Many Worlds interpretation of this New Cosmology for I am stretched across all these realities and there are a large number of them, yes, but not as many as would arise from this idea of every grain of sand producing another thousand realities.”

“Ah ha! But what if we can only reach the side realities that are nearest to us because those are the ones we exist within? Maybe you’re a constant in this God Pact world, but maybe there’s some other God of Magic in some other version of Veird and you literally can never meet that other God of Magic. Maybe, by your nature as a god, you can never meet other gods with your own mantle.” Erick added, “That’s just a complete guess, by the way, but there’s something about it that makes some sort of sense.”

Melemizargo narrowed his eyes at Erick, and then turned to gaze into the Dark distance.

Erick continued, “I am absolutely sure that there are realities out there where I died long ago, after all. I met one of those other selves in the Deep Paradox.” Erick changed tracks, “But enough about that. I want to know if you agree that it is possible that the size of Veird, in this New Cosmology, might actually be larger than the Old Cosmology itself, if we consider every grain of sand to be producing a thousand different worlds at every single fraction of a second in time.” Erick asked, “If the Red Sparks simply cannot eat us fast enough, for this knife-edge cornucopia gives more than it eats, can we extend this entire world’s physical and god powers out to other lands and keep ahead of the Red Leviathan, too, until such a time happens that we can kill the Red Leviathan for good?”

Melemizargo frowned a little as he continued to stare in the distance.

Erick waited.

“… I do not like being a lizard who drops his tail and flees the enemy,” Melemizargo softly said, “But perhaps there is some merit to your words. I will have to think on this, Erick.”

“I just have one question before I go.” Erick rapidly asked, “Can you see side-realities where you don’t exist?”

Melemizargo narrowed his bright eyes at Erick, then said, “Of course I can; Paradoxes are not hard…” He looked away, “But this ‘Many Worlds’ idea does… Hmm. Maybe this explains why my memory is so warped by this New Cosmology. I am constantly being eaten at the edges. I knew I should have been more whole than this… I will need to figure out a solution… I will simply have to strengthen and expand.” Melemizargo smiled at that, showing off a hint of his glowing white fangs. “Oh yes. I quite like the idea of that. That appeals to me greatly.” And then he looked to Erick. “Any world I See is a world where I exist, so by that very fact other Gods of Magic cannot exist, for I am dominant in my sphere. I cannot see any worlds eaten by Primal Lightning right now, but I do not doubt that you were in one. Take that information as you will. Perhaps you will come to me with more deep questions, and we will exchange more deep answers.

“Here are a few deep questions for you, for now:

“Why is the Red Leviathan not eating the multiverse from multiple multiverses? Is it only capable of acting from one vector?”

“… Are you capable of acting on multiple vectors?”

Melemizargo grinned. “I can, but I choose not to, for interacting with myself is just interacting with myself, if you could understand that. Another way to say it is that I am Here, and not Elsewhere, though I can certainly see that Elsewhere exists, if I desire it, and then I can act from there, if I desire it.”

“Ah. Well yeah. That makes perfect sense. So maybe… Maybe the reason the Red Leviathan cannot just multiply itself and kill us all is perhaps the Red Leviathan cannot work with itself? It seems filled with malevolence for all life, so maybe it hates itself, too?” Erick shrugged. “Maybe it is working with itself, like how I’m working with Solomon. But both Solomon and I are in the same reality, and maybe the Red Leviathan is in the same reality as other Red Leviathans... But now that you have raised the question... I don’t think that particular avenue of thought is a productive one, so I choose to ignore it.” Erick said, “Let us deal with the facts as we see them and make deductions based on those facts; not deductions based on why the enemy hasn’t been able to kill us all.

“All we truly know is that the Red Leviathan ate the Old Cosmology, and it hasn’t finished the job for a multitude of speculative reasons.

“I would return to the topic of working with oneself across a multiverse of timelines some other day.”

“Sure.” Melemizargo asked, “Who would you raise to a god?”

“Solomon,” Erick said, without reservation. “If he wanted it, and only after he becomes immune to the Red Sparks. He’s working hard on healing his soul, and it seems to be going well. As I understand it he is melding together all the different, competing memories of his Other Lives. I looked at his Bracelet earlier and the broken black line is coming back together, so it might only be a week for him until that whole thing shakes out. He will want to get his Jane back, though. He needs to be promised that, and that has to be something that could actually happen. Whatever the case there, I have very big plans for Solomon, so please don’t interfere with him overmuch.”

Melemizargo nodded. “Naturally. Who else?”

“Maybe Avandrasolaro. His new city is growing fast and strong and I like everything about his policies. He would have to become immune to the Red Sparks, too, but we can figure out how to make that happen.” Erick said, “And that’s all I have for right now.”

Melemizargo grinned as he breathed deep, and exhaled relief. “This has been good, Erick. What is your next step?”

“Well it’s gonna be a lot of side-stepping everything, unfortunately. Circuitous. That Void Well is gonna be a target, but I also have to study astrophysics, which simply does not exist on Veird—”

“Astrophysics does exist. Try Stratagold.”

Erick raised an eyebrow. “… Well okay then.”

“They have plans for what they would do if visitors should appear from beyond the Script, and many of those plans have needed to be used over the years. They also have all that technology recovered from other planars. If the technology they have is not useful, they also have diagrams and plans for things like that ‘dyson swarm’ you spoke of at that Shadow’s Feast where we unveiled the dungeons at House Benevolence. I believe that was the first time you mentioned this idea of a swarm of planets, and though you haven’t spoken of it since then, your words and that floating diagram of the planet system were recorded for posterity.

“That posterity has spread wide and deep and thus flourished in certain circles of this world.”

“… Huh.”

- - - -

Erick sent off some messages to Stratagold and Kromolok and even Rozeta, in preparation for what came next, and he also organized what he had figured out about the Red Leviathan today.

Everything he knew was speculative, but it seemed correct.

1: Mostly, the Red Leviathan operated on its own, constantly eating an infinity of other realities spawned on Veird. It was possible that the red leviathans at the Breaking Ritual were smaller parts of the main Leviathan, and Oozy in that other world was a Champion of the Red Leviathan, so it could definitely work with others if it wanted, but mostly it did not. Probably.

2: The God Pact world stayed ahead of the Red Leviathan through quantum multiversal shenanigans; there was just too much to eat, so the Red Leviathan could not eat it all faster than it came into existence. The God Pact was not perfect, though. Veird only survived through the fact that, in the infinite multiverse, somehow, someway, Veird survived.

(Fate was probably involved. Maybe this God Pact world was a world in which Fate could never be fully Banned. Erick liked that idea a lot, actually.)

3: The Red Sparks did not Mind Control people at all, for it was not capable of doing that. The most it could do was see the future and then [Rollback] events that let its prey escape, giving it a chance to draw its prey into an endpoint where it consumed that prey in a side reality.

4: It also [Rollback]ed events that allowed people to recognize it, or any path where it knows that its actors fucked up. Any path that led to true success against the Red Leviathan was most strongly guarded against.

(Number 3 and 4 were the main vectors of the unknown prognostication war happening between the Red Leviathan and all the life of Veird.)

5: The main force for solidity, in the reality in which Erick recognized that he resided —as opposed to the side realities inside Paradox— was the God Pact, which was arbitrated by Phagar, and stabilized by all the gods working together to keep Veird afloat. (And maybe Elemental Fate, but that was a pure guess)

6: Direct war against the Red Leviathan would not work; it would eat such worlds that warred against it most of all, because those worlds drew its gaze, like the mentioning of Fairy Moon drew the sight of that Fairy King.

7: The malevolence of the Red Sparks was nothing less than total evil. Erick might as well call the Element of Primal Lightning as ‘Malevolence’, but that was probably too ‘on the nose’.

8: Everyone he ever knew was dead. And yet, everyone was still alive.

Probably best not to think about that fact too much.

So Erick thought about a much better fact. Or a pair of facts, really.

9: The Red Sparks had stopped the Star Map Ritual from sending a pulse out into the universe. Therefore, there was something out there that the Red Leviathan was afraid of, that could stop it, that could interfere, and Erick wanted to know what that thing was. He needed to do the Star Map ritual again, but somewhere that the Sparks could not interfere.

And 10: Everything could always be made better; all one had to do was try…

“And kill the bad guys every so often, of course.”

- - - -

Erick stepped through a Benevolence portal down onto white tile in a white cathedral. To the untrained eye the walls of this cathedral-like space might look like marble, all white and clear and with veins of yellow and gold, but Erick easily recognized it as stratagold; the type of crystal of which Geode Stratagold was named, and which was the name of the royal adamantium wrought that ruled this land.

King Alfonin Stratagold stood a little down the grand hallway, not smiling at all, but he at least appeared not-mad. The giant black orcol man was flanked by his eldest son, First Prince Abarnikon, and by the white holyite incani Kromolok, the Head Inquisitor of the Church of Rozeta.

No one else was here and the [Ward]s around this place had to be specifically taken down to allow Erick to [Gate] into this least-defended part of this land. The [Ward]s further in were never taken down for any reason, whatsoever.

“Hello, Alfonin. Kromolok. Abarnikon.” Erick said, “Glad to see you all. I was hoping to see some people with some actual astrophysics qualifications, though? Apologies if you have those qualifications; I did not know.”

Ophiel looked around, his eyes wide. He was probably feeling a little weird because this area was almost [Ward]ed against [Familiar]s. Erick would have to leave him behind when he got further in, which was kinda fine… It wasn’t fine, but Erick didn’t press the issue.

There were no Red Sparks here, so this was probably a safe-ish space.

Alfonin chuckled a little, his entire facade of a stern king easily fading away. “I do, actually, dabble in astrophysics. So that is why I am here. I’m not here as king today, and neither is Abarnikon. This is all Kromolok’s show, so after you’re done with the ships you can come up to the palace for some tea and math fun, won’t you?”

Abarnikon added, “I also enjoy drawing maps of the universe, Erick.”

Erick raised an eyebrow, grinning. “Oh! Well you learn something new every day, I suppose. And yes; that sounds like a great idea.” Erick said to Kromolok, “Hello, Kromolok. I hope my impositions are not too onerous.”

Kromolok was actually-mad, but good at hiding it. “You should be aware, Erick, that this ‘no mental magic’ decree of yours is very suspect. Please convince me that you are not dragging a great big problem into my life, and into this very secured location.”

Now that was what Erick had been expecting.

“I can honestly say that I do not have a meme or anti-meme stuck in my head, and that I am not a sleeper agent of Melemizargo or any other force of evil, and that I only have the best of intentions for all of Veird and all of its peoples, both living and dead, and everything in between.” Erick added, “But if you try to touch my mind then whatever happens is literally not my fault and I cannot help you with that fallout.”

All three wrought were uncomfortable with Erick’s words, with the two royal wrought being most unsure. Alfonin and Abarnikon were here as security measures, for sure. Perhaps their words about being astrophysicists were true, but that was a side benefit to their true presence.

Kromolok was the real power in this particular place though, and he showed it with his obvious displeasure, and yet, he wasn’t that mad. He seemed more secure now, too.

Kromolok still frowned a little, but his words were solid, “I suppose I can accept that. I believe you, Erick.”

Alfonin relaxed first, but not by much. “Then that is great news!”

Abarnikon asked, “I would speak with you about the nature of our starry skies later, Erick, when you are done perusing the Vaults.”

Alfonin asked, “How long do you suspect you’ll be in the Vaults?”

He had already told them his desires and his goals, but that had been through Poi’s Mind Mage communication network, and not directly, and Kromokok had already told him exactly what he would be allowed to do, and how long it would take. But maybe he could get more out of this?

Erick said, “Unless I’m allowed to take samples with me, then it shouldn’t be more than an hour, right?”

Erick saw Abarnikon and Alfonin look at Kromolok.

And Kromolok stood firm, “No samples, Erick. It’ll be an hour, if that.”

“Ah! Well,” Abarnikon said, “I tried.”

Alfonin shrugged.

Erick smiled at that.

“The Star Map you created in that clearing is the best local star map we have, though,” Alfonin eagerly said, showing that even the undying First King of the Wrought had a child-like glee side to him. He was still wary of Erick and his untoward request not to touch his mind, but he couldn’t help but be happy right now. Had he been waiting a while to talk to Erick about the Star Map? Perhaps he had. “Don’t go expecting too much more than what you have already given us with your own Star Map, but we do have some records that you have not seen yet, and I feel you might enjoy those.”

“I was kinda hoping for star maps of other civilizations, if you have them. ‘Where do the other planars come from?’ That sort of thing. There is life out there in the rest of the universe, and I would like to know why it has not appeared on Veird yet. I’m glad to see that is on the table?” Erick asked.

“It is,” Alfonin proudly said.

Erick nodded, then looked to Kromolok. “I believe you and I spoke of lots of technologies kept out of the general populace, like ‘internets with a lot more power than how I imagine them existing’? Are those also on the table?”

Alfonin asked Kromolok, “What’s an ‘internet’?” A tiny flicker of a thought tendril passed from Kromolok to Alfonin— Alfonin’s eyes went a little wide, and then he settled down. “Ahh. That’s an ‘internet’.”

Erick asked, “I kinda wondered why you all didn’t put something like that up in the Geodes. I assumed that the reason not to do it was forbidden knowledge proliferation, and maybe you already have an ‘internet’ with the Mind Mage Crossing.”

“We have that in the Crossing,” Alfonin said, nodding. “It used to be a lot more open than it is, but that version of the Crossing failed due to catastrophic meme proliferation. It’s better now that only practiced Mind Mages can access that well of knowledge, and the whole thing is overseen by Ascendant Minds. If you wish to proliferate some technological equivalent for the common person on Veird then I would assume you would try to put just as many safeguards into such a system as we have put into the Crossing.”

Erick smiled a little. “Of course.”

Alfonin nodded, satisfied. “We’ll be seeing you later then, Erick. Don’t get lost in the Vaults.”

Kromolok led the way beyond the royal wrought, saying, “This way, Erick. Once we get deep enough in all magic will begin to fail, so expect that.”

Erick followed, nodding to Alfonin and Abarnikon who nodded back, then he caught up to Kromolok, asking, “Will Ophiel be okay?”

Ophiel chirped, “I’m okay!”

Alfonin and Abarnikon vanished into a [Gate] of Script-making.

“Ophiel will have to stay around here, in the entryway. We have a place for him ahead.” Kromolok gestured at the tall stratagold walls, saying, “Don’t go above head-height. There are spellworks up there in the wardlights that will entangle and disintegrate him.”

Erick glanced around with his All-Seeing Eye, and though the hallway looked like a normal cathedral-like hallway, lined with tall crystal walls and lit with chandeliers above, the walls were more [Ward]s than physical, with wrought standing in hidden alcoves, watching for intruders. They watched Erick and Kromolok walk by, but they said nothing. Maybe they went their whole lives only seeing people every other decade? How sad. But… Some wrought were Like That.

A little deeper in were guardian golems that reminded Erick of the guardians outside the cloud walls that separated the Core of Veird from the massive monster tunnels outside, but these guardians were more like suits of armor and only 4 meters tall, instead of like those giant white monsters with their single eyes and lots of teeth, and so many [Luminous Beams]. These guardians probably had [Luminous Beam] magics, too.

A golden line in the floor came up soon enough, and the world beyond that line was awash in diffuse light. Erick could still see past it, of course; his All-Seeing Eye was doing work.

Kromolok said, “The main [Ward]s start here. The Vaults are a hundred meters further down. Ophiel won’t be able to come any further, but we put a perch here for him.”

It was a nice golden perch, completely devoid of every magical effect that suffused everything else down here. It looked out of place because of that, because it was out of place. The controlling magics got a lot denser further in, but they were already strong here, so Ophiel had to use his own Benevolence aura to move himself onto that perch.

“I’ll be back soon, Ophiel.”

The little guy chirped, “Later daddy!”

Erick smiled at that, and then he followed Kromolok, as Kromolok led the way past the golden line on the floor. The world seemed to dim the second Erick stepped across. Sound failed to travel far. Light turned misty, instead of coherent. Without his All-Seeing Eye the trip to the Vault ahead would have been like walking through illuminated fog. With the Eye, it was like walking down a normal hallway that attempted to crunch all magic down to nothing.

Erick was glad to see that the Red Sparks weren’t here, and that his various artifacts were still highly functioning. His All-Seeing Eye probably shouldn’t have been functioning so well, but it was. The Lightning Shield was a divine artifact, and thus it made sense that it was not subject to these mundane magics filling these halls… Or perhaps the magics in these halls were attuned to allow Erick his Eye and Shield?

A more paranoid man would have thought this a trap.

Erick felt pretty good about what was happening here, though, and for multiple reasons. He said to Kromolok, “I discovered another use for Benevolence that you should try out sometime.” Erick almost wanted to speak of Benevolence being used to see tracks through time and space, to connect a current location with a better outcome in the future, but Melemizargo had told him not to speak of that to anyone, ever, and Erick would accept that warning/recommendation for now. There were other secrets to share, anyway, and he was seeing one of those ephemeral, White Lightning paths laying ahead of him right now. It wasn’t a very long path, but like how the Red Sparks had set up dominoes across all of reality, Erick could set up proper dominoes, too. So he followed that short Benevolent path forward, the Path growing stronger and more solid as he spoke simply, “Benevolence is great against corruptive influences. It encapsulates them, and prevents those corruptive influences from causing harm. Sort of like an immune system response to a foreign body. Of course, the influence still exists, but it is kept separate from this time and space, and thus it is nullified for a while. Just don’t go breaking that barrier and letting it out without having a solution for that, too.”

Kromolok’s eyes went a little wide.

Erick nodded.

And Kromolok looked away, thinking.

The two of them walked for several more steps—

“So this explains why you don’t want your mind touched,” Kromolok said, “This is both more and less concerning than I had feared.”

“Understandable. I’m still not sure what to do with this information myself. It just sort of happened. Short term solutions are working right now, and Benevolence seems to have a natural capability to take care of existential threats all on its own— both to encapsulate and keep from spreading, and final annihilation— but it’s sort of like an immune response. There’s certainly some time-propagation happening, speeding up that immune response, but even still, it takes time and recognition of the threat for this side of Benevolence to function.”

Kromolok looked at Erick for a moment, then he turned forward, saying, “We’ve had Elements that separated and controlled threats before. It does not actually fill me with hope that Benevolence does this as well. It’s truly quite alarming, really. That your Element can erase those threats eventually is also quite alarming, but on the whole, it seems like a good thing. The only concerning thing truly about it is the theoretical reverse of Benevolence which someone will no doubt invent in the future.”

“Glad to see you’re still looking at every possible bad end, Kromolok,” Erick said, not unkindly.

“We should all be a little more paranoid when it comes to forces beyond our understanding, especially sentient ones like your Benevolence, and all of the rest of the other dangerous things from beyond the Script.” They reached the end of the hallway where a simple white door lay, like at the end of any other hallway anywhere else. Kromolok put his hand on the handle, asking, “What do you even want the ship for, anyway?”

Because I need to be able to get a message out into the Void without the Red Sparks interfering, among other reasons.

“Because I need to inspect some truly advanced materials, like I explained already.”

Kromolok pinched his lips a little, and then he opened the door.

The land beyond was much more appropriate for a Vault entryway than the simple door had been. Beyond a solid white room that was large enough to house all of Erick’s cloud castle, a giant black circle of a door stretched up a hundred meters, like a cap upon an edge of the world. Kromolok walked through the smaller door, into the larger space, where all of Kromolok’s magic crunched down to the surface of his skin, and only because he held his Domain strong against the oppressive forces of that space.

Erick followed, also keeping his Domain up and active, feeling like he was stepping into an Abyss—

“Oh.” Erick asked, “Is that door crystallized Elemental Abyss?”

“Hanging liquid Abyss, mostly, but kept semi-crystallized and solid most of the time. So you’re somewhat correct.” Kromolok said, “In order to reach the Vaults you have to be able to actually walk through both the crystal and the liquid version and come out the other side whole. I can’t help you with this part, Erick. I’m sure you can do it, though.”

“Piece of cake.”

Kromolok led the way.

And soon, Erick followed him into an absolute crushing depth of power, where even Erick’s mana sense was crushed down to the surface of his skin. Any normal person in this sort of space would have gotten lost in the black, for sure, but Kromolok knew the way, and it was straight ahead, and Erick could see with his Eye, so it wasn’t that bad.

He wasn’t even sure where he was going—

Ah.

There was a [Gate]. Not one of Erick’s either.

- - - -

Erick stepped out of the Abyss onto white stone, next to Kromolok.

His first inclination was to look behind them, because they had gone through a [Gate] and ended up in front of a standing armed building, filled with people. Erick rapidly decided the building and the people therein were not a threat.

It was an entire research city up here filled with wrought of various kinds. Most of them were obviously either researchers or guards, and there weren’t a whole lot of them, but they did exist; this place was constantly guarded by living forces. Those living forces glanced at Erick and Kromolok, briefly going on high alert, but then rapidly deescalating. No problems here! Just the Wizard visiting the Vault with the Head Inquisitor.

They had been warned ahead of time, for instead of mumbling to each other about the pure oddities of what was happening right now, they were quick to resume their normal guard duties, which chiefly seemed to be viewing their targets from far away or standing at attention, or walking their patrols this way or that.

What they guarded lay ahead.

Erick and Kromolok stood on a cliff, overlooking the Vaults.

The worker city had all the aspects of a real barracks city, with some nice trees and people on the streets walking from there to there. The Vaults, proper, were not that at all. It was impressive in the mundanity of it all. Down below the cliff under Erick’s feet, for a hundred kilometers or some other stretch of space, cubic buildings of various sizes stood like gravesites. Most of the buildings were maybe a hundred meters cubed but some of them were much larger. All of them were separated by streets, all of it done in a grid, all of it either white or off-white stone. No windows. Only solid stone. Diffuse light coated everything, everywhere, allowing no shadows at all, while extra light was painted onto the big gold numbers that adorned every corner of every Vault, marking each cube from every direction.

Magic in this land was still crushed down to nothing, but Erick’s artifacts still functioned.

He saw some Red Sparks here and there in the Vault but none of the Sparks looked too egregious. Just random floaters here and there—

Scratch that.

There was one Vault down the way, maybe twenty kilometers in and ten to the right. That one was suspicious.

Erick pointed. “What is in that one?” He squinted, trying to read the number off of the Vault’s corners. “122-571.”

Kromolok eyed Erick. “… A double memetic threat, kept in stasis through the interactions of each other.”

“Ah.” Erick lied, “That must be what I am sensing.” He moved on. “Which one is the ship?”

Kromolok eyed Erick for a moment longer, then he moved on. He stepped to the side, toward a staircase, saying, “There are multiple ships, actually. All of them are kept in storage this way.”

- - - -

The first ship was a thing of sleek silver metal and metal splashes that looked nothing at all like a ‘stereotypical’ spaceship. The ‘ring ship’ was about sixty meters across and rested in a simple, hundred-meter cube of a room. Kromolok had peeled back a lot of the restrictions in the room, so Erick was fully able to mana sense and experience the ship with all of his senses.

And Erick felt his heart pump hard as he learned an uncountable number of things just by viewing the swirled-silver machine. It wasn’t a gate, but holy shit, it probably could do that if it wanted. And that was just the start.

“Oh my gods,” Erick said as he stepped forward. “This means people use magic outside of Veird.”

Kromolok softly said, “Yes. We’re not sure what kind of magic, though.”

Because of the lingering Red Sparks upon the machine, Erick knew what kind of magic was out there; the exact kind that the Red Sparks didn’t want anyone to learn. Revelation upon revelation dawned within Erick and he struggled to keep up with all of them, so he went through what he saw, and how it must work, in an orderly manner.

First, the shape of the spaceship. All the rest of Erick’s thoughts extended from that first oddness.

The base ‘ship’ was a silver ring around 1 meter thick and 60 meters wide. It rested above the ground due to large grips of what were clearly a part of the stone structure of the building, and not the ship itself. The silver ring of the ship was solid silver metal, with a whole bunch of ‘splash-like’ silver metal parts that looked like it was almost flowing, stretching up and down from the ring, like it was crawling over an invisible orb that would have existed in the center of the ‘ship’. It almost looked like an art project, but Kromolok said it was a spaceship, and Erick absolutely believed him, but mostly he believed the Red Sparks lingering on the runic structures inside the metal.

The Red Sparks did not want people understanding ways out of its power, and this was one way to get out from its power.

The runic structures inside the meter-thick base ring, located several centimeters underneath the silver metal, were too dense to be understood, but they were runic structures, for sure. Maybe it was better to say they were like several different crystalline structures all overlapping each other. There was no circuitry. There were no electrical parts. There was no need for that sort of mundane shit. But this stuff certainly was ‘circuitry’ of a magic sort. Mana flowed through the interior crystals, and even off-gassed from the structures, forming a haze in the air that the Red Sparks devoured.

That was produced mana.

It was not siphoned mana, or mana transformed from the environment. That was new mana being made by the ship. It was a living ship… Or at least it produced its own mana. Like a cultural artifact? Hmm. No. ‘Living ship’ seemed more correct.

Erick asked, “Why not let its mana production get subsumed by the Script?”

Rozeta stepped down into the room, saying, “Because then this mana would be distributed to all the rest of Veird, and we don’t do that. For what it is worth, it seems about as neutral a mana as I’ve ever seen, but we don’t allow anything strange into Veird’s manasystems, and especially not strange mana from living ships.” She added, “Also; Hello, Erick.”

Erick smiled. “Hello, Rozeta.” He gestured to the machine. “Is it operable?”

“Not that we’re aware. I’m not letting you play around with it overmuch either. We don’t know what it does, only how it used to work. It used to fly around quite well, but the original pilot died, and though she left instructions on how to pilot it and that woman’s friends used to be able to fly it back then, it is a living machine, and the living machine doesn’t like anyone else touching it. Everyone who tries, dies.”

“That’s fine. This is a lot of information anyway. I never expected to be able to take a ship with me. Do you have any idea how the crossed crystals work?”

Rozeta frowned a little bit, thinking if she wanted to say anything, then thinking about a lot more than that. She asked, “Will you tell me why you don’t want people to mind read you?”

“Would that I could, but that would be a bad idea.”

“You understand how worrying that is.”

Erick nodded. “I do understand that. All I can really tell you is that I am not doing anything major for a while, and I’m probably going to pull back from rescues from beyond the Black Gate, as well. Solomon will be taking over a lot of that. Since you’re here, though; I want to help him become a Wizard through the use of the Lifeblood Heart. There’s a good handful of things to discuss with you about all that, but at the start, there’s the idea of grabbing a Void Well from the Dark, or a Grand Cleanser to control the mana around the Heart, or asking you to maybe work out some sort of… Release valves across all of Veird, or something… Not quite sure how that would work, but the idea is to put the Heart in orbit around the Core, and lay down a track of Void for it to follow while also pressuring it from the outside to stay inside. There’s a lot to work with there.”

Rozeta raised an eyebrow at the mention of the Heart. “We have a plan and you have stumbled upon a few key aspects of that plan, but not their full nature, of which we would be keeping private, especially since you have been exposed to a disruptive meme.”

“Fair enough. I’m going to give birth to Ophiel and Yggdrasil before we try for the Heart, though. So maybe in a month or two for the Heart.”

“That’s a fine timetable. How about 45 days to prepare for it?”

“Sounds good!” Erick smiled, asking, “Now the runic structure of this ship? The crystalline overlapping parts, that look like several grains of crystal all overlapping, somehow. Is it some sort of—” Erick had been about to say ‘quantum overlapping, or whatever’, to start that whole conversation, but apparently that was too close to what would eventually make the Red Sparks vulnerable. The air filled with a few more sparks, all of them multiplying and spilling out from every edge of space. In his excitement, Erick had fallen off his own Benevolent Path for a moment, it seemed. So he backpedaled, “Some sort of physical overlap?”

Calling what those crystals were doing a ‘physical overlap’ was completely unhelpful.

The Red Sparks retreated.

And Rozeta said, “We’re not quite sure how it works, only that it doesn’t work anymore, and that the neutral, unknown mana coming off of it is rather boring. It’s still quite alive, but it’s hibernating. The silver metal is just silver, but with some organic compounds strewn throughout. The Silverthorn Oaks that grow down in Nergal in that reserve and in the Gardens of Ar’Kendrithyst and a few other Geodes are similar in structure to the silver metal of this ship. So whatever made it, grew it.”

Erick smiled a little, looking over the ship. “This is awesome, you know. There’s life out there— Well duh. I already knew that. But seeing their magitech is… It’s a lot. A lot of good things. Can I have some of the silver?”

Rozeta said, “The silver disintegrates when it is removed from the ship.”

“Ahh. That’s a no, then.” Erick looked over the ring ship once more, then said, “Mind if I touch it? Use some Particle Sense Class Ability to poke around a moment? I don’t have to actually touch it, though; just aura?”

Rozeta leveled a glare at Erick. “What did I just say, Erick. It kills anyone who tries to touch it. This is why I came down here. Don’t touch it.”

Erick surrendered. “Fine fine fine! Heard and understood. Onto the next one!”

Rozeta sighed in relief, then said, “Don’t touch any of the other ones, either. And now, I must depart. Farewell, Erick.”

“See you later.”

- - - -

The second ship was much more what Erick was expecting. It was something he would have found in any sci-fi television show made back on Earth, and though Erick didn’t watch a whole lot of that back then, it was impossible to be a living person in America and not develop a few preconceptions about what a spaceship should look like.

This particular ship was not whole. It had been struck with some sort of power in several locations, exploding metal and other parts away from the main structure, leaving great holes in the ship. It was a shame.

Other than the holes, it was a boxy rectangle with a bunch of viewing ports and wires in the walls and a plant growing room that was devoid of anything living and bed rooms and mechanical systems that Erick didn’t understand at all, except in the broadest of strokes. There were also things that were like the ring ship’s multi-crystals stuck here and there within the wired system of the ship, almost like lymph nodes in a body, but this ship was not alive at all; no mana exuded off of it at all. These crystals were clearly some sort of magical system and solid state computers of some sort, though… probably. The crystals here had some Red Sparks on them, but barely any at all. There was something to be discovered here, but not much.

Still though, it was very high-tech.

Erick floated in the air near the rear of the ship, looking at the massive engine exhaust ports, or whatever they were called. “Someone should be working on this. Trying to make this thing functional.” Erick looked down to Kromolok, who had chosen not to fly around as Erick investigated the ship. “Have you all tried to repair any of this stuff?”

“No. All ways off this planet were deemed too high of a risk versus reward, what with Melemizargo being Melemizargo.”

“Understandable,” Erick said, floating back to the ground. “Have you all had discussions about that decision in any recent years?”

“Nothing beyond a reaffirmation that we’re not ready to explore space, but if we manage to get 50 more years of peaceful, calm growth, we’ve agreed to revisit the issue in a large way.”

Erick thought about that as he looked at the ship. “… Any interesting metal here?”

“We have samples of the hull for testing, if you want them. Adamantium is still superior, but adamantium needs to be exposed to at least some level of mana every ten years to maintain structural integrity, or else the mana-made alloy ceases to be a cohesive object.”

Erick’s eyes went wide. “I didn’t know that!” His brain raced away with him, and he instantly asked, “That 10 year timeframe is solid? What about when exposed to the rays of the sun? Cosmic rays? Extreme Light, etcetera.”

“As long as the level of Extreme Light does not exceed the level of ambient other-mana by any more than 5 times over, then that timeframe of 10 years to degradation holds. At 6-times over 10 years becomes 10 months. It’s a rather precipitous drop in integrity.” Kromolok said, “Outside of the Edge of the Script or a contained mana production system or a bunch of other nuances, adamantium will disintegrate under the sun in a matter of months. Still pretty good, though. Plenty of time to fix it.”

“… Hmm.” Erick thought. He asked, “The levels of solar rays versus, say, the ambient mana produced by a good hundred slimes?”

“A self-sustaining population of slimes is fine, so you could have around 10 and be good. But as exposure to the sun’s Killing Rays is not a uniform thing, I wouldn’t try it with less than a thousand slimes.”

“… Yet another thing I did not know.” Erick glanced at the increase in Red Sparks in the air and decided to end that line of questioning there. “What’s the final ship look like?”

- - - -

It was a simple disk about ten meters wide, half a meter thick, and solid white. It was also another magic ship, filled with dense, quantum-entangled multi-directional crystals that were also filled with Red Sparks. It off-gassed mana just like the first ship did, but in a whole lot lower quantities. The first ring ship gave off what was effectively a thick air all the time. This thing only had a mirage near it, and that mirage faded in the [Cleanse] of the room.

All three ship rooms had a [Cleanse] spell active at all times, making sure the mana production of these ships did not affect anything else, or be allowed to build up. All the rooms had a similar system, actually.

“So aside from the vast amounts of xenological information in the other two ships, and maybe even in this one, this one is boring and it’s not even alive like the first one.” Erick asked, “Does it work at all?”

“It does not work.”

Erick asked, “Want to talk about the histories around each item?”

“Not really,” Kromolok said, honestly.

“I can’t really blame you for being distrustful right now, Kromolok, but come on man. I’m still me.” Erick said, “If I could let you in on what is happening, I very much would. But that would be detrimental to you and yours, and you would not be able to understand me anyway.”

“I can understand anti-memes just fine, Erick. I am the person who comes up with a great deal of the meme and antimeme countermeasures here on Veird. I feel like you are being dismissive of me and it is making it hard to trust you.” Kromolok said, “It makes me feel that you have encountered something and it has changed you.”

“Encountering world-changing information will do that to a person—”

The Red Sparks crowded.

And Erick sighed. They were near a rollback, and that was frustrating. He had probably been rollbacked every time he talked to Kromolok, hadn’t he? Because, of course, now that he was here, Erick recognized that since he was investigating an anti-meme, he should have come to Kromolok or Kromolok should have come to him long before now. It only made logical sense to talk to the man who was in charge of all the anti-meme and anti-antimeme countermeasures in the world, right? … Or maybe Ascendant Prime had something to do with all that, too.

Now why hadn’t Erick spoken to Ascendant Prime before now, either?

It was easy to make excuses after the fact; Poi was there, Ascendant Prime never showed himself most of the time, Kromolok was more Erick’s contact for this sort of world-affecting stuff, etcetera. But looking back on it, Erick should have been talking to Ascendant Prime, Kromolok, and even Phagar, really.

Erick had only been at this for, what, 2 days? Hard to tell with all the rollbacks. But as for the anti-meme itself, Erick should have been talking to those very qualified people before now… And yet, if he had, he would have fallen off this God Pact world, wouldn’t he?

So of course, the one that survived was the one who didn’t do all that.

Well shit.

The Red Sparks were playing at the edges of this God Pact world, making sure no one ever found out about it, and rolling back when people got closer to it. But maybe it was time to talk to the other gods about this sort of stuff. Erick was more immune now, wasn’t he? Maybe he could—

Red Sparks flashed.

- - - -

Kromolok stared at Erick, saying, “It makes me feel that you have encountered something and it has changed you.”

Erick sighed, and repeated what he had said earlier, “Encountering world-changing information will do that to a person.”

“Yes, but whatever information you encountered has changed you for the worse.”

Kromolok was staring at Erick, probably half a step away from truly taking [Mind Control] of the situation.

And that hurt.

Erick said, “I would accuse you of being too paranoid, Kromolok, but paranoia is a good thing sometimes. I’m rather paranoid right now, too. Mostly, I’m paranoid that you have touched my mind and been very careful, not realizing that you are dancing around something that will literally not let you know about it, and the second that you do, you are dead.”

Even after Erick said the words, he had no idea why he had been allowed to say them, for surely the Red would have rolled him back. He had basically implied the true existence of the anti-meme, and that was too much information—

Erick realized something bad.

They weren’t in the God Pact world anymore.

There should have been a rollback, but there had been no need for one because Erick had fallen off the knife-edge of chance and straight into death.

In that realization, the Script slipped away from him. The Script was gone. Erick felt it leave him like a soft sigh in a bedroom. Kromolok had no idea, but he would surely notice the loss soon, too. But Kromolok didn’t need to read Erick’s mind to know something was happening far away; he could see Erick’s face.

Primal Lightning was eating away at the edges of the world already.

Erick did not panic, even as Benevolence began to seep away from his body in fits and spurts, erupting from his skin and pushing back all other mana. Kromolok started to say something, his eyes going wide, tendrils of thought ripping out of his own body and plunging into Erick—

And then Kromolok knew.

His eyes went wide, and defeat closed in.

There was no need for the Red Sparks to rollback this world, because it was already winning.

But Erick had hope. As white lightning flooded out of him like soft, sparking light, touching everything and harming nothing, the world transformed into green life and brilliant futures even in the face of The End. Perhaps all this life in this tiny section of a piece of the world would allow it more futures, in a Many-Worlds sort of way, allowing it some time to stave off the end. Erick wasn’t sure, but the world certainly wasn’t collapsing nearly as fast as it had when Erick had been talking to Sininindi.

It was still falling fast though. The Core of Veird was gone. How much could truly be left?

It had only been a single minute so far.

Erick had afforded Kromolok all the time he could, and this place was guarded against Time Magics of all sorts, for now, so he couldn’t give him more without triggering the alarms himself. When the [Ward]s failed under Primal Lightning, though...

“Kromolok.” Erick spoke, “What is the one thing I can take from the Vaults back to the God Pact world?”

Kromolok had a thousand things to say to Erick, but there was no time.

Most of his words did not need to be said, though, for Erick understood.

The sudden loss. The personal failure to guard against what he had spent his entire life guarding against. The unknown danger beyond the Edge of the Script all this time, and yet already here, on Veird. The depth of the problem. The fact that Primal Lightning still existed at all.

And then he moved on.

Kromolok stared at Erick, while the room of this final platform ship filled with greenery and white lightning. Moss and mushrooms sprouted around his white metal legs. He did not step above the growth; he accepted his fate even as vines twirled up his legs.

“I apologize for pushing you at all. You should do more to navigate that better; less poking, more softness.” His admonition finished, Rozeta’s Head Inquisitor said, “Nothing can be removed from the Vaults in a timely manner. Even the end of this world will not allow that to happen.”

“It’s probably for the best,” Erick said, the ground giving way under his natural mana generation, like a helicopter brushing grasses to the side and yet a lot more than that. A lot of weirdness was going on, so the floor literally transforming into grass was not too surprising. It was kinda odd to not have his skin breaking apart and his body destroying itself through his mana flow, either, but then, of course, the Script was probably holding him down back there on the God Pact world. Even under ‘no-Script’ dungeon spaces, the Script was still there, somehow. Erick wasn’t sure why he didn’t recognize the ease at which his body naturally exuded mana back when he was talking to Sininindi at that other Bad End, but he certainly recognized that fact now. As he floated there, above the spreading life, while Kromolok continued to accrue greenery, looking up at him beseechingly, Erick asked, “Please give me something, Kromolok—”

Explosions rocked the outside world, and Erick’s lightning greenery suddenly crumbled away the roof of this spaceship hangar. His mana pressure pushed away all falling stone, revealing the world outside.

The walls of the Vaults flickered prismatic, seeming like an entire stone sky lighting up as something struck the outside like a violent child tapping at the glass of an aquarium, scaring all the fish.

The [Ward]s were failing.

Hidden things in the Vaults were already escaping, going on sudden rampages, or twisting the world in ways it was not meant to be twisted, or fighting each other, or feasting. The Vault protection squads atop the cliff were trying to contain the sudden damage, sending people flying around out there, shooting spells at the escaped dangers to the world—

Kromolok spoke a deep secret, “The secret of the omni-directional crystals found in the ring ship is adjacent to the inward-growing mana crystals found in the Glittering Depths. They are like cousins. But they use different types of mana than what we have here on Veird. And yet, that mana exists here, too.” Kromolok Looked at Erick, and in that moment he trusted more than he had ever trusted before. “That form of mana was called ‘resons’ by the woman who crashed to Veird on that ring ship, in the Forest of Glaquin several centuries ago. She was what you might call a ‘space elf’, but her species was called ‘astraelif’. She lived among the orcols for years, proving herself completely different from the stories of elves of the Old Cosmology. She was even to be married to an orcol man and Aloethag was to transform her into an orcol in the accepting of her vows, but a confluence of events conspired against her like a thousand things happening wrong and the entire wedding party raged, murdering that space elf on the altar. In honor of that woman, Aloethag took her would-be-orcol form as her own; a form she still wears to this day.

“That ring ship killed itself after the death of its creator and has hated all life that ever tried to touch it, ever since then.

“I had no idea why that all happened as it did back then, and I blamed Fate as the most likely of causes for a plethora of reasonable reasons. But now I know the real culprit.

“I think you’re right about the Many Worlds, Erick; the protection it offers us. But you are taking too many risks. You shouldn’t poke at this anymore. You might not make it back to your world if you keep testing the Malevolence like this.”

The world roared.

Prismatic [Ward]s failed.

Red poked in from the distant walls of the Vault, like leviathans invading a nest, looking for things to devour.

And then those endless streams of Primal Lightning tore through those walls, crashing through every single [Ward] in the place—

And suddenly all the defensive, crushing, anti-magic powers of the Vaults failed.

Kromolok was covered in greenery, breathing deep in his final moments, holding in the panic, putting on a good show for Erick, but he was terrified.

Erick said, “I’ll make sure this never happens, Kromolok. I’m sorry.”

With a ragged sorrow, Kromolok said, “Get going, Erick.”

Erick pulsed with power, then he constrained and warped that power. A twist. A flicker. A Connection formed with the Proper Path. A spark turned to lightning.

An imploding pop.

And then Erick was gone.

- - - -

Erick stepped out of his [Gate], onto the white floors of the entryway to the Vault, to see Kromolok, Alfonin, and Abarnikon standing there, waiting for him. It was a welcome sight to see them alive and whole.

“Greetings, Alfonin, Abarnikon, and Kromolok,” Erick said, “Thanks for agreeing to let me see the ships. I understand it’ll only take an hour, though, so if you have anything else we could see or talk about how life might work outside of Veird, I’d love to do all that.”

Erick was emotionally wrung. It was hard to play off what had just happened, but they were in the God Pact world again, and thus that other, doomed timeline simply did not exist. Erick managed.

Alfonin smiled a little bit, saying, “We have a wonderful little presentation about all of that up at the White Palace, for later. I know you were wanting to see some true astrophysicists, and my son and I are rather decent at all that, so I hope we can finally talk about the Star Map you made for Rozeta and even the dyson sphere of a decade ago.”

Erick happily said, “I would love that.”

Alfonin and his son Abarnikon had a few smaller words that were much like the ones they had had before, with Abarnikon subtly suggesting that Kromolok let Erick take samples of the ship, and Erick easily agreeing with Kromolok’s stubborn sense of duty, placating the inquisitor in a comforting way.

There was talk about Erick asking for them to mentally ignore him, and how that was a breach of protocol, but Erick gave some similar words to what he had done earlier, and easily navigated that Red Spark-lined conversation.

The next hour proceeded more or less how it had before, but Rozeta did not show up this time because Erick did not press any advantage at all. Visiting the space ships the second time was kind of numbing, actually; like he was seeing some great hidden work of art for the second time, even though it should have been his first time seeing it.

Kromolok seemed kind of relieved that Erick wasn’t too impressed by anything. That fact certainly lowered his defcon level.

Of course, Kromolok was subtly reading Erick’s surface thoughts this whole time, staying far away from any real knowledge, and so he knew Erick was rather calm and yet worried about everything; a normal way to be, really. Maybe Kromolok was just reading emotions? [Sense Emotion] was a spell, after all. Emotions seemed fine to sense; there was no actual information there.

Soon enough, Erick had passed back through the Abyssal Vault door with Kromolok to stand in the hallway with the boring door at the end. As he walked past the golden line in the floor, Ophiel chirped on the perch, and then flew back to rest on Erick’s shoulder.

Kromolok, looking relaxed, said, “I must be honest, Erick. I expected that to be more weird. I expected something unknown to trigger inside the Vault; for you to express whatever hidden thing you have in your mind and to cause some sort of problem. I am always glad to be proven wrong in my paranoia.”

Erick grinned, saying, “It’s not paranoia if the bad guys truly are out to get you.”

Kromolok chuckled a little, smiling brightly. “To the White Palace, then? Central courtyard; I believe that is where the Stratagolds await.”

Erick opened a [Gate], and the two of them stepped through into a courtyard under the false suns of the Geode Stratagold, into the center of the White Palace. Erick had always liked this place. It was shaped like a starburst of crystals kilometers across, and surrounded by floating crystal platforms. Erick had been here long ago for a Bright Tea ceremony, under an ultraviolet light, where all the wrought danced and glowed together, to honor their sacred duty to the world, and to Rozeta. He had been to Bright Tea twice more since that first time. Nowadays he came here to talk with Alfonin about this or that, whenever the mood took him.

Erick already knew where to go, so he took a left and walked by some guards into a massive open meeting hall, with Kromolok at his side. At the far end of the space was a whole bunch of tables set up with charts and orreries of various sizes and metals. A bunch of wardlights held in the air, with the largest star chart being a copy of the one Erick had done in that ritual a while ago. That Star Map held to the side of the grand meeting hall, taking up a good twenty meters of floating space.

Abarnikon was at the paper charts, poking between them and an orrery on the table in front of him.

Alfonin was playing around with the Star Map. He noticed Erick first, his black metal face going from stoic to happy in a short moment. “Erick! That didn’t take nearly as long as I figured.”

Kromolok said, “Delivered as requested.” And then he said to Erick, “Good fortunes, Erick. Don’t go opening up Veird to cosmic expansion too soon, okay?”

Erick chuckled. “No promises.”

Kromolok eyed Erick for a moment, then said, “I hope that is a joke. See you later.” And then he spoke to a red incani wrought beside the door they had come in from. “[Gate] to my offices.”

The red woman bowed, softly saying, “At once, Head Inquisitor,” as she opened a [Gate] of red light, with the other end—

Erick instantly, reflexively, counterspelled the Script-given [Gate].

For a moment, no one said anything.

Then Erick shrugged, and said, “Sorry. I just had a really, really bad feeling… Uh. Here:” He opened a [Gate] to the beach area outside of the Yggdrasil at Stratagold. On the other side lay the wrought offices of Stratagold Transportation, set above and overlooking a wide, heavily busy avenue of transportation, where massive floating barges whipped through gates to travel to the Surface, and then continue on to the rest of the Gate Network at Candlepoint. The very few people in those transportation offices looked Erick’s way, but they said nothing; they wondered what they were seeing. “Again, sorry Kromolok. I have no idea why I did that—” A lie; he didn’t want the very good Mind Mages in Kromolok’s Inquisitor offices to catch anything at all from this side of the red [Gate]. “—And this spot is close, right?”

“… Sure, Erick.” Kromolok said, “I was actively protecting people from seeing your mind in my offices, though.”

“… Perhaps you were, but I’m not being overly paranoid here, Kromolok.”

“Fair enough.” Kromolok went through Erick’s [Gate], saying, “See you later.”

Kromolok greeted the people at the Stratagold Transportation office, all of the wrought ones bowing instantly while the fleshy people wondered what the fuck was happening. Some of the fleshy people suddenly realized and then they bowed too, and then even more as they saw who lay beyond the unexpected [Gate] in their offices.

Erick gave a little nod and shut the [Gate].

And then he went toward Alfonin and Abarnikon, saying, “Sorry about that. I’m a bit jumpy right now. So let’s talk about metals for use in space! And dyson swarms and colonizing planets and all that fun jazz, and where all those other planars might have come from.”

Alfonin raised an eyebrow at Erick, then he simply smiled and moved on. “Any planar stories you’d like to hear about in particular?”

A servant offered tea to Erick and he took a cup. Then the servant offered tea to Alfonin and Abarnikon as well, who also took some. They all three had a sip of their own; a little ritual of hospitality.

And then Erick said, “There was this one story I heard about long ago when I first landed on Veird where an elf fell to Veird and then orcols killed her for being an elf. What’s all that story about?”

The royal family of Stratagold were all shaped like orcols, so Erick suspected they might have a slightly more nuanced take on that particular planar. He was soon proven right.

“I think Abarnikon was more privy to that planar than I. I believe she called her race of people ‘astraelif’. ‘The Cosmic People’ in their language. I don’t believe she was an Old Cosmology elf at all, but her appearance tracked with our records of those extinct people.” Alfonin looked to his son, asking, “What was her story?”

Abarnikon began, “That story is one of the prime stories of elves and orcols, and shapes much of modern day orcol culture. It began with a woman named Ivalia Starstriker, a planar elf who fell to Veird centuries ago, in the year 838 or 839. She was lost in the Forest of Glaquin for an unknown amount of time and the registrar sent to find her could not find her. This is because she fell in her spaceship, and her ship, while damaged and healing, was able to guard her from all sorts of scanning magics used by mortals, and the divines were bickering at her arrival, so there was a lock on using divine magics to find her, as well. I believe you would have seen her ship down in the Vaults, Erick; it is the ring ship.”

Erick raised his eyebrows in half-surprise; he had heard about the ship’s origins last go-around, but Kromolok had given the impression of never wanting to talk about the specifics of any of the ships at all. Erick hadn’t expected to get this sort of sharing from Abarnikon, or Alfonin.

Erick smiled, saying, “That’s an interesting ship you got down there.”

“It is,” Abarnikon said, “Unfortunately, it is beyond broken. It was what Ivalia called a livingsilver ship and it died when she died, though its corpse still lives on, still producing that unknown mana that it produces. I doubt Kromolok is willing to talk about any of those ships, so your surprise is expected.”

Erick chuckled a little. “He’s pretty tight-lipped.”

Alfonin smiled at that, too.

Abarnikon continued, “We’ll get to her death later, but for the first several years of her life, she was hunted by orcols for the threat she represented through Aloethag’s various elven-sympathy proclivities…”

In the way that wrought did a lot of the time, Abarnikon spoke at length, and in depth, going over the 18 year-long history of Ivalia Starstriker and her livingsilver ship like a university professor asked to give a filibuster. Erick did not mind. No Red Sparks encroached upon Erick at all, and he was using Ophiel outside in the courtyard to check on the rest of the world through a bunch of [Gate]s. This was just a known-history story, finally getting told to Erick, though millions others probably knew the story long before now.

That story ended as Kromolok had already explained; with every orcol at the wedding Raging and tearing the bride-to-be to shreds of flesh and nothing more.

The commonly accepted reasoning varied, and Abarnikon went over many of them. In one version of the story the husband had been turned into an elf instead of the elf being turned into an orcol like had been agreed, and the wedding party killed them both because Aloethag was cheering for her new elven future. In another story the elf had done Blood Magic to the entire wedding party as part of a ritual, attempting to turn them all into elves. Another version had the elf just lay down some dormant blood magic in the wedding party that would have come to fruition generations further along, turning all orcols into elves, or something to that effect. And then there was Kromolok’s Fate-fuckery version of the tale, though that story was told in confidence, and not to be spread to others; world secrets and all that.

Eventually, the conversation moved on to Erick’s thoughts on elves (no thank you) and getting the ship out of the Vault for better inspections (“Probably never, Erick,” Alfonin said) and the uses of metals in space.

“It cannot be as simple as ‘adamantium is the best’,” Erick said, “The Script supports adamantium; it is not a naturally occurring alloy. And Ivalia’s ship is ‘livingsilver’; whatever that is.”

They were still standing around the tables, talking, drinking tea, and eating some small snacks, even several hours after starting in this very same place. They hadn’t gotten to any of the charts yet. They hadn’t gotten past a single story and a few tens of tangents. It was quite relaxing, actually, so Erick did not mind this at all. It was better than seeing Red Sparks everywhere.

Alfonin smirked, saying, “Adamantium is wonderful outside the Script, Erick. It soaks up mana of all kinds and even produces a minor Domain to keep that mana in. We used to have a large adamantium shell surrounding all of Veird to protect us from the Killing Sun in the beginning of the Script, but that only lasted weeks. No one wanted to be trapped inside anything at all, least of all Melemizargo, so we developed the current Edge of the Script.”

Erick’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

Abarnikon said, “Adamantium is not a perfect metal, for sure, but there is a reason that it is the royal metal. Many reasons.”

“… Could we make a giant adamantium shell the size of a mountain and throw it out there, filled with slimes, and it would survive?”

“Ah ha!” Alfonin smiled, gesturing to the table with the dyson swarm and other planetary schematics. “And now we can get to the math of it all.”

… Well. They had to get to the math eventually, didn’t they? Oh well. Erick understood the math of it all, but it was no fun, so he paid attention but not too much.

He did have to pay attention to all of the logistics, though.

Abarkinon said, “[Duplicate], when used on a sufficiently uniform building block, like a hexagonal rod a hundred kilometers long that we have in this design here, will be able to join to itself using standard metal-melding properties in a zero-atmosphere environment, allowing us to partition out an ever-expanding series of continent-sized plates. This would form half the basis of every part of the swarm, and would be runed against other runes being used upon it. We would need an interior runic system though, so we would have that secondary rune system inscribed and then sandwiched between the top and bottom plates. This secondary system would provide gravity and magnetic locking capabilities that would extend to the whole continent-plate, while the adamantium would guard the inner, vulnerable plate, from wear and tear and terrorism and malfeasance. Dirt, air, water, and a breathable atmosphere would be maintained by the middle plate, with enough redundancies and self-healing properties to make even the most paranoid of inquisitors be comfortable building upon one of these plates.”

Erick took in the theoretical work they had done, and said, “Wow. That’s impressive.”

“It’s actually not.” Abarnikon said, “This is basic stuff from the Old Cosmology, adopted and transformed to fit this New Cosmology. Much of this plan is over a thousand years old, and proven to work inside the mana ocean. Making it work inside the void of space, fully exposed to the killing sun, will be a miracle that we will have to make happen.”

Alfonin added, “This plan does nothing to consider the mana requirements in order to use [Duplicate] to make the adamantium and other materials in the first place. [Duplicate] doesn’t take much mana to make objects, but it does take some, and when you start using that magic on an industrial scale —and especially a continental scale— those numbers tend to add up.”

Abarnikon said, “Rozeta won’t give real numbers for security reasons, but we’ve been able to figure that Veird can make one fully-functional Glaquin-sized plate every 10 years.” He added, “That’s right now, of course. In 80 years, when we’re 20-ish years out from Yggdrasil sending off his first seed, we might be able to have a flattplate waiting in orbit for him, for his first world. That orbiting land can suckle off of Veird for several years, taking monsters and dungeons and people with it, and then float off to land on one of the other planets, growing strong. We’re imagining Yoril would be the first target world.”

A ‘Flattplate’! Ha!

A slow grin crept onto Erick’s face as he looked at all the plans. “This is… This is nice. I never even considered something like that. Tell me more!” He rapidly added, “We're not calling it a ‘flattplate’, though.”

“How about a ‘flattearth’?” Abarnikon asked, completely straight-faced.

Alfonin smiled, though, giving away the game as he asked, “You don’t like the idea of a flattearth?”

“… My daughter has been talking to you about certain subjects that I wish never followed us here from Earth, hasn’t she?”

Alfonin laughed loudly, while Abarnikon cracked a smile—

Erick realized, “It was Sitnakov, wasn’t it!”

Alfonin smiled softly, saying, “Want to talk about how our children are mingling, Erick? Because I have heard that they are, and that you have finally found this out.”

“… I’m not ready for that conversation yet. As soon as Sitnakov approaches me about it, then we can talk. I am not opposed, but… I have 6 daughters now—” Erick winced. “… 4 daughters, and 1 son, and Yggdrasil and Ophiel too, of course.”

There was a brief look of oddity upon the royal faces in the room. They didn’t know about Debby; the Red had taken her from this world in all ways. Only through Melemizargo had Erick and the others been able to remember her at all. Perhaps they thought Erick was having some sort of minor mental break, but they moved on.

Alfonin nodded. “That’s fine with me. I’m not opposed to Sitnakov and Jane. Just putting that out there.”

Erick said, “So let’s talk more about plans for solar system colonization.”

And they did.

Erick eventually got out of there six days later, but he went back after a day of rest to continue the conversations. He was much more lucid that second time, and he had a lot more questions about metals in space, and he even paced himself this time, asking for a break after two days and then coming back for another three final days of more talking about space and math and logistics.

Alfonin and Abarnikon’s enthusiasm for the universe, and for the Star Map Erick had done, was infectious.

Erick had known his Star Map had made a splash, but this was the first time he saw the results of that splash among the ‘hobbyist astrophysicists’ of the world. This was the first time he was truly exposed to this whole subculture of the wrought, too.

It turned out that every planar who ever landed on Veird had tried to connect themselves to their place in the universe, but Erick’s attempt was the only connection that ever produced the effect they saw with his Star Map, when Fairy Moon, Rozeta, and Melemizargo were all present. Other people just did basic drawings or wardlights or sculptures of various kinds.

Ivalia Starstriker, of the astraelif ‘space elves’, had a galaxy shaped like a five-armed broken-up scattering of stars. It was not the Milky Way, but maybe it could have been? Probably not. Erick had always drawn the Milky Way like a whirlpool with spirals that made most of a full rotation, and sure, some of the other galaxy representations were like that, but the real maps, like the one taken from that boxy spaceship down in the Vaults, had a real star map that was very much not the Milky Way at all. That particular map was like five uneven and long islands, swirling around a center scattering of stars.

None of the maps resembled the ‘Renew Rune Shape’ of Veird’s galaxy.

- - - -

Erick woke up in the house under the floor of the slime dungeon.

He rolled over and hugged Quilatalap.

Quilatalap blinked open his eyes. “Good morning.”

“Good morning.”

Quilatalap smiled. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too. Would have been back sooner but asking them to not read my mind made them all highly anxious, so they needed a week of talking to me to check me out that way.” Erick smiled, adding, “And I got to talk about space colonization, which was surprisingly fun.”

Erick had needed a week to get over the fact that the Script was interfering with his mana generation process, anyway. For some reason, even disconnecting from the Script through no-Script spaces caused him to crystallize instead of just softly exuding Benevolence like he had both times when the Primal Lightning came for him. And that was news.

Talking about theoretical, far-away futures was good for the nerves, and the Red Lightning didn’t seem to give a shit about that, or maybe planning for good futures caused even more futures to spill outward, pushing back the Red even more.

Who the fuck knew! Not Erick. He had guesses, and that was it.

Quilatalap kissed his forehead then got out of bed, saying, “You ready to give birth to Ophiel?”

Erick breathed deep as Ophiel squeaked on the headboard of their bed.

Ophiel asked, “I’ma real boy?”

“Soon, Ophiel, if you want that.” Erick sat up in bed and Ophiel flopped into his lap. Ophiel was a bunch of feathers and eyes, but his form had mostly settled into four wings and a scattering of eyes on both sides of a feathery head. Erick asked him, “Do you want to be a human boy? Or a feathery boy? We’re not sure exactly how you’re going to turn out—” Erick suddenly added, “And you don’t have to do this now. But… You’re only a few months away anyway.”

Ophiel said, “I get purpleberry pie when real, yeah!?”

Erick smiled. “Yes. You could actually taste it if you had a physical body. Do you want that?”

“I want real now!”

Erick took a deep breath. And then he happily said, “Okay! Then yes. Time to be born, Ophiel.”

Ophiel tweeted in joyful violins, saying, “Yay!”