Chapter 189, 1/2

Chapter 189, 1/2

Time stood still for two more moments, and then it resumed, but slowly. Redflame’s wide eyes ponderously shut all the way and then opened once again; a minute spent on a single blink.

And then he was present, in the moment. Broken space filled the world all around, while the tower itself almost fell apart, but grey light held it together, filling in the cracks left by the removal of Elemental Benevolence. Redflame did not seem to like the state of his estate, but instead of getting angry, he looked to Fairy Moon.

Fairy Moon’s left hand was charred black, exposing bone and blood. Lightning burns went all the way up to her elbow. Her blood was red as could be, dripping out of her flesh like an open tap. She should have been and possibly was in a great deal of pain, but she smiled despite it all. Warmth, love, and hope held in her deep, green and pink eyes, and in the curl of her lips. She sighed; a fond expression. And then she moved her burned hand away from Erick’s fully intact hand, curling the bone and burned flesh to hold it tight against her chest. Blood dripped upon her dress, and she flinched as she moved, betraying her physical pain, but what was the physical to one such as her? It was nothing. Fairy Moon took a moment to be thankful for what she had done, and what Erick had done, while she held her crispy flesh close.

Maid Maria remained far behind Erick, cowering behind the bar and behind a silver serving tray, but she poked her head out, now that time had resumed.

The three heads of the houses of Ar’Cosmos each hovered on the other side of separate windows to the tower. Illustrious’s foxtail-like aura extended out from behind her like the fanning flames of a violet fire. Inferno Maw held himself up via a grey density in the air; it was his grey magic that seemed to be holding up much of the crumbling tower. Bright Smile floated among harsh red light, with her smile full of fangs, and with a thin collar of white lightning circling her neck, with spikes pointing inward.

Erick had a similar crash of iridescent white lightning inside his mana veins, but his was a lot less violent looking.

Erick decided to speak first, “So it seems that was Elemental Benevolence.” He glanced to Fairy Moon. “It seems like it will work out, too.”

Expressions of concern, intrigue, hope, and worry, abounded.

Fairy Moon just giggled, then she tore the burned flesh from her left arm like she was taking off a long glove, revealing perfectly healthy flesh beneath. In that same movement she turned the removed glove into a small white ring that she then slipped upon that hand’s ring finger. That white ring sparkled like a tiny circle of Benevolence lightning, and she held it up for all to see. “A beautiful thing, this beatific creation! Benevolence is cause for celebration! Not concern!” She gestured with her newly beringed hand at the Eraser and Replacer [Renew] rings. “And [Renew] will solve both the half-dragon dilemma and the small shattering of our Ar’Cosmos. But since the shattering is rather serious, that is the rudeness we must rectify first.” She said to Illustrious, “Illustrious! Illuminate the in-flow nodes for Wizard Erick to begin repairing the mess he has made! It will be a grand first-use of his radical [Renew].” She said to Erick, “For you will be repairing the ravaging you have done, don’t you think?”

Illustrious instantly took up the option to control the conversation, saying, “But of course.” She began to float into the room, to land upon the floor near her window. “An inflow of proper mana will begin to repair the damage done, and what better way to test out the veracity of [Renew] than to heal this land, directly?”

Inferno Maw and Bright Smile followed Illustrious’s lead, and floated inside the tower, to land on the floor.

Inferno Maw said, “I would seek a proper accounting of whatever happened here, before anything too drastic should happen, such as revealing the nodes that dictate the stability of this land to an unallied Wizard.” He lightly glared at Erick, saying, “I am quite disappointed to know that Particle Magic isn’t real.”

Erick frowned at the man, his thoughts going sideways as he latched onto Inferno Maw’s little snipe. “Your world fell into my universe, Inferno Maw. This universe has particles. I did not invent those.”

Fairy Moon sighed, and sat back to wait out the drama.

“How can anyone be sure? You might have even invented ‘Earth’ as a concept of your own past.” Inferno Maw said, “You’ve changed so much, so fast, and unless I am mistaken, you have just now invented a new Element. I have no doubt this new mana has propagated backward into the past, and likely infected every single spell you have ever cast. Who is to say that you haven’t already done this once before? I believe you have.”

Erick would have been dumbfounded by Inferno Maw’s nonsense, but he saw a truth in the man. Inferno Maw was scared, and trying not to show it. He wasn’t the only one. Practically every single person in that tower room was least a little terrified, except for Fairy Moon. She seemed like she knew that everything would be okay.

Erick... Mostly felt that everything would be okay.

Except for the ring of lightning around Bright Smile’s neck; that was a major concern.

Erick was currently engaging with Inferno Maw, though, so he said, “Fairy Moon was the one that caused this to happen. I was going to get together a committee to talk about how to solve the problem of the Sundering, and then I was going to enact their will, creating a true Sundering solution that would last forever. But... I think this will work.”

Fairy Moon happily said, “You make a mistake, Erick! This was not me, my wonderful Wizard.”

Erick frowned, though he could not find it in himself to be mad like he thought he should be. Fairy Moon had tricked him, right? Or did he have that wrong? Did a trick even count if it wasn’t magically enforced? ... What had happened in that moment when Fairy Moon had asked that question, anyway?

And why wasn’t Erick madder at her? A side effect of Benevolence? Maybe. Maybe not. He could run some experiments with getting angry another day; for now, though, anger would be counterproductive.

There were more things to be worried about than all that nuance, though.

At the mention of Sunderings, Inferno Maw forced his breathing and his heart rate to remain even. Illustrious let her heart beat fast and hard, for she did not care who knew her emotion— She wanted people to know what she wanted them to know. Not ‘she did not care’. Bright Smile just grinned wider.

Erick suspected that Bright Smile might have a screw loose.

Redflame spoke, though, because he had had enough, “I am entering into a formal alliance with Erick. I expect you all to fall in line. Sort out the details at another time, though.” He said to Erick, “Erick. Thank you for the [Renew] rings. I will begin testing on them today with some of our sorrier cases. Do you wish to be kept apprised of this development?”

Erick did not miss that the man had said ‘thank you’. No one had missed that. Erick still didn’t know if saying ‘thank you’ was bad to say around Fairy Moon, or around anyone inside Ar’Cosmos, but at this rate he was gathering ‘thank you’s and he had no idea how to cash them in, or if he even could. Whatever!

“Yes; I wish to be kept apprised.” Erick said, “These rings might not work, though. If they look to fail in some way then stop the procedure and let me make some new ones.” He stressed, “I am not comfortable with person-experimentation, but we’re at that level. I hope that there are no untoward effects.”

Redflame said, “The people who could benefit from these bloodline erasers or creators—”

Inferno Maw exclaimed, “Bloodline Magic!”

Illustrious laughed. “He did it!”

Bright Smile demanded, “Make one for Paradoxed Carnage.”

Redflame glared at Bright Smile, announcing, “We will talk later. All of you. Later.” He turned to Erick, “These people I plan to use these on are half-dead already. They are kept in stasis... Those who can afford it keep themselves or their loved ones in stasis, to come out of that stasis every so often to accrete to see if they can clear up their bloodline. We have a lot of death row cases like that. If this helps, then this helps. If not, then they will at least have gotten a chance that they did not have before now.”

Erick steeled himself. “I am glad to know your measure, Redflame, and I am very glad that this meeting... Has worked out, mostly. I can see through the Ophiel I left on the roof and I apologize for... Whatever happened when I made Elemental Benevolence.”

Elemental Benevolence had shattered all of Ar’Cosmos, apparently.

“I can see the various destruction as well,” Redflame said, “But I highly doubt that anyone except for the truly unlucky have been injured, and even those who have been injured are likely receiving help.”

Illustrious spoke up, “House Fae and House Carnage are seeing to the repair, as we speak.”

Bright Smile glanced to Illustrious, and decided to follow the woman’s lead, saying, “Carnage takes care of our people and this level of destruction is nothing to us dragons. We will make good allies going forward, Erick, for together, we shall carve lands out of this world that will accept us all, or they shall accept fire and death.”

Illustrious tried not to frown at the end of Bright Smile’s announcement, but she couldn’t help it. She frowned. Erick wasn’t too happy with the ‘fire and death part’, either, but they would undoubtedly talk about that before they got that far. Redflame glared lightly at Bright Smile, but then ignored her threats.

Inferno Maw said, “The Pathways are secure. Ar’Cosmos has not been breached. This level of destruction has come upon us before, and we have weathered these storms time and time again... Even if this time the circumstances are rather unique.”

Erick almost paled, but he caught himself.

He had almost caused a breach of Ar’Cosmos, eh? That would have been bad.

And at that thought, Erick discovered he could get mad. He was furious at Fairy Moon, but also at himself for what he had almost done, but he stuffed that emotion down, calmed, and moved on.

Erick said, “I hope we can work on many projects together, and on these [Renew] rings, too, in order to solve some of your problems this month, instead of next year when [Renew] enters the Open Script— Though it’s only... ten months from now. Not a full year. Perhaps you will have proper runic [Renew] rings before next year’s Water Season begins?”

Redflame nodded solemnly, then said, “That was to be the first of my deadlines for a working prototype, if I had managed to make [Renew] myself.. Now that you are here, though, and helping, I gratefully accept your help and look forward to working with you on this temporary and individual solution to the Dragon Curse.” Redflame said, “In time, when our people are... Perhaps living beside Candlepoint, or some such, we will have time to work on more projects together.”

Erick said, “There is lots of room around Candlepoint. I can only hope that when the wrought and Kirginatharp find out that I’m a Wizard— Okay. Well. I just made Elemental Benevolence. So. They likely already know. Therefore, I want to be sure this alliance is going to work.” He looked around, but mostly at Bright Smile. “I do not want a single war to happen because of the removal of the Curse.”

Bright Smile spoke, “We won’t go looking for war but we will not back down from a war if war should come, and war will come for us. If you enter into an alliance with us, that means that you will protect us, and we will protect you, and if someone should attack us, then you must attack them alongside our forces. That is the preliminary alliance agreement, but more words would be put down on paper later. If you cannot agree to that, then we will need to have different discussions about you leaving Ar’Cosmos intact, or not.”

Erick ignored the threat, and felt the lightning in his veins seem to focus.

His words came out calm, but inside, he had a feeling like butterflies in his stomach. “I am aware of what it means to be allies, Bright Smile.” Erick spoke with feeling, “I am also aware that with enough power, all sides might choose not to go to war, for the outcome of such a war would break Veird. I will not participate in such a conflict if it should escalate to that point, or if it looks to escalate anywhere near that point. I urge you to not do this, either. The release of dragons from Ar’Cosmos does not need to cause a war.”

Bright Smile brought the building storm to a point, “They will force a Forgotten Campaign against you. The entire world will come for you. The only thing you can do is decide if you want to lay down and die, or thrive in the violence. I know my choice. When the choice comes to you, I hope you make the right one, or else we cannot be allies.”

And here now was the turning of a world.

A knot in the tapestry.

A choice made before all other choices.

Bright Smile’s lightning necklace glittered in Erick’s eyes, and in his eyes only.

Erick felt himself speaking, guiding his words and his future toward somewhere better than before, “So if war is not inevitable... If they choose to let Benevolence stand? If they choose to let Ar’Cosmos enter the world without violence? What then? Will you go to war even when there’s so much land out there to occupy and populate, and war only diminishes yourself and your own resources? Soon, we’ll be opening up whole new worlds, Bright Smile. I will make that happen. There is absolutely no need for war. Why go to war, when you won’t even have the resources necessary to found a proper Empire? To occupy and control and cultivate all the infinite lands out there that you will eventually gain?” Erick said, “No; War is not the best possible answer. Posturing and promises of war, followed by surgical strikes against entrenched enemies are something that could happen, but believing and acting like open war is inevitable is the surest way to ruin.”

Bright Smile kept her ruinous grin, as she said, “‘Believing’ and ‘acting’ have nothing to do with my stance that war is inevitable. I know war will happen, Archmage Flatt, because as soon as dragons are allowed to be strong, Rozeta and the wrought and Kirginatharp will come for us, as they have time and time again. Forgotten Campaigns. Genocidal Dragon Stalkers. Mind Mages, and most of all, Kirginatharp, who Cursed us all and who maintains that Curse within his own soul, ensuring that none shall ever challenge him again.” She adopted a bravado of relaxation, saying “But I understand your particular stance, even if I think it too hopeful by far. Dreamers like yourself make this world worth living. But when this turns into another Chelation War I expect you to hold up your end of this bargain made today. I expect you to bring extermination to those who want nothing more than to exterminate us.”

Erick blinked a little, as the depth of Bright Smile’s conviction threw him for a loop.

And just like that, possibility collapsed. Erick could not grasp at the tapestry again, for it was out of reach, for now. The lightning choker around Bright Smile’s neck remained.

Ah. Well. Bright Smile was rather willing to talk. So, perhaps she was not a disaster waiting to happen? At least not right now? They would need to have more discussions later, it seemed—

As soon as Erick had that thought he realized that Bright Smile did not become the head of a house of Ar’Cosmos through utter violence... Well maybe she had, but even Redflame has said that the woman had enacted some ‘good reforms’ in her tenure as the head of House Carnage, which has been for the last 150 or so years, if Erick recalled correctly, and he did.

Erick tried to put himself out there one more time, “I hope I am not allying with warmongers, because if you decide you need to war just because you can, then this alliance is dead in the water.”

Bright Smile said, “If—

“That’s all the talking for today,” Fairy Moon spoke over the dragon woman. She stood. “We will all return to our residences and Erick is to remit to us enough [Renew] to repair the ravaging he has done to this domain. Tomorrow or on tomorrow’s morrow, there will be more talking. Today, we are done.” She clapped.

An echo traveled outward.

And suddenly, Erick, Fairy Moon, and Maid Maria, were all in Fairy Moon Manor, in the dining room, standing around. Not a [Teleport], but a shift in space. Fairy Moon had ended the conversation then and there, and just because she could... Maybe see what Erick had seen?

Redflame’s tower and all of the dragons had been left behind, along with the [Renew] rings he had given the old dragon. Erick just blinked for a bit at the sudden movement, and then Ophiel twittered on his shoulder while Yggdrasil looked all around, excitedly.

It appeared that Fairy Moon Manor did not make it through Erick’s Benevolence unscathed.

The room was broken in half, with one half filled with farmland, and the other half filled with the dining room.

Fairy Moon announced, “Wonderful work, Erick. Maid Maria; it’s time for a repast, so get on that, while I make noticeable a node for this resident Wizard to [Renew].” She gestured to the side, and a torso-sized ball of pink/green/white depths appeared, like a sudden abyss opening in the air. “This is a node of Ar’Cosmos, Erick. [Renew] it, and repair my mansion, first.”

Maria scampered off toward the hallway that should have led to the kitchen, but Erick saw that the hallway ended in a library. Maria didn’t seem to care about the changed space, though, for she touched a bookshelf and that bookshelf turned back into the hall it should have been.

Erick ignored that, and turned back to the node. With barely a command, and more of an understanding, Ophiel flitted over and hovered next to the multicolored abyss. Light streamed out of the little guy, flowing into the abyss—

The broken edges of the dining room, the sculptures half there and the paintings hanging loosely on the walls, took on a pink/green/white shimmer. All too quickly, Ophiel bottomed out on mana, having rapidly pumped 2500 [Renew] into the hole in reality.

Erick glanced around the room.

Fairy Moon did, too. She frowned a little. Nothing had changed.

A sinking feeling dragged down Erick’s stomach as he—

“Oh!” Fairy Moon exclaimed, squinting her eyes into the far distance. “Ah. It’s realigning the river. That’s probably best purposes.” She clapped her hands again, and happily exclaimed, “Repair as you can, or suffer the shame of me doing this same destruction to you. An arm for a leg and a leg for a head—”

Okay. That was too much.

Erick interrupted her, “Your warning is unneeded, and entirely too violent. I am still mad that you slaved me to your will, again. Do not mark me as an enemy, Fairy Moon.” Erick easily found his anger, but it was background noise. He needed a nap, or maybe he was just hungry. He forced himself to relax. “The mana will come as it comes, and not a minute faster.”

Fairy Moon shook her head. “Mark you as enemy? Madness! I mark you as maker of worlds and wisdom! And slaved to my self? Senseless! All I did was ask; you were the one who answered. This Benevolence is all yours, Archmage. Your accomplishment, your actions! I did not do this; only you. This is your Benevolence.”

“... I wanted a committee. You tricked me?”

“I asked and you answered.” Fairy Moon said, “It’s not my fault that mana loves your locution, and that you attained the awareness necessary to nurture this Fairy Fate of beneficent Benevolence.”

Somehow, Erick had forgotten that Fairy Moon was fae.

... Whatever.

Erick held out a hand and mangled up some magic, using Elemental Mystical to make the mana help him cast Ophiel. Another little guy popped out of the air. He was up to four, now. He asked, “Is this the only Node where the magic needs to happen? Will [Renew] filter out to all the other ones?”

“Yes indeed.” Fairy Moon kept smiling. “We might not have runic webs here, but we have better magic than that.”

“Good.” Erick had Ophiel cast a [Prismatic Ward] next to the node while the first one conjured up a bird stand that could eventually hold nine Ophiel next to the node. He asked, “Will Maid Maria be back soon? I feel like taking a nap— after I summon all of my Ophiel and they get set up around the node, of course.”

Fairy Moon had looked like she was about to interject, but then she relaxed, and said, “Supper will surface when Maid Maria wills it to be. Go and get a snack if you’re starving.”

He moved on.

A twist of 5 mana made a [Force Bolt] out of his suppressed aura, which impacted the stone floor without damaging it at all. Completely normal. For Erick’s second Bolt, he used one mana and packed it with Elemental Mystical, but in a Clarity sort of way, attempting to make a normal [Force Bolt] for 1 mana.

That second bolt did not work. Instead of a spot of clearish-whitish light, Erick got an eyeball conjured out of the manasphere which struck the ground and splatted, exactly how an eye would have splattered.

Okay. So. That was a [Mystical Bolt], probably; a scraping of the manasphere for an effect, and having found a [Scry] effect —that looked a lot like Yggdrasil’s eye— it copied that effect and created a Bolt of that same shape. That was just a guess, anyway. Maybe there were a thousand invisible [Scry]s around him at all times! Wouldn’t that be completely different than normal!

Moving on.

With 2 mana, and through the use of Elemental Mystical tag-along ideas, Erick was able to make a normal [Force Bolt]. Theoretically he should have been able to get his Bolt costs down to 1 mana, for that’s what they had been back on Veird. Obviously, this was a skill issue, then.

... Erick relaxed his suppressed aura. Wispy, white lightning filled the air around him.

With a twist and a spark of intent, a little lightning bolt of Benevolence shot out of his aura and struck the floor, leaving a teeny tiny scorch mark upon the stone that sparked for five seconds, and then settled down. The spark barely made any sound at all.

Most of his Benevolence stuff was completely silent, which was quite at odds with how Erick usually expected electricity to act, but, of course, this wasn’t electricity now, was it?

Anyway. Erick cast again.

A tiny not-lightning bolt arced from his aura to strike a spot on the floor just to the left of his first strike. Again, the struck area sparked for a bit, and then settled down, leaving a tiny black spot when it was over.

... Erick suppressed his aura, manually Mana Altered for Elemental Lightning, and threw a proper Bolt—

The air crackled as a Bolt of white lightning, like a golfball of power, zapped out of Erick’s clear aura and struck the ground, smacking hard. And then it was over. There was no lingering lightning. There hadn’t been an actual bolt of lightning either, like how one would normally see lightning in the sky; there had certainly been a [Force Bolt]-shaped Bolt, though.

As for the stone floor, there was barely any indication that Erick had struck the ground at all... Perhaps a small discoloration? He really had to look to see that discoloration, though. It was definitely not a black mark like the Benevolence lightning had left, nor had the [Lightning Bolt] lingered at all. And what’s more, the [Benevolence Bolt] had been an actual lightning-shaped bolt, too—

Ahh.

Erick grimaced.

Terminology was going to be a problem. A Bolt was not a bolt was not a [Chain Lightning], while the word ‘lightning’ (lowercase) was usually used to indicate the normal lightning bolts that came out of clouds, and ‘Lightning’ (uppercase) was used to indicate Elemental Lightning.

Though some people still appended the word ‘bolt’ onto lightning to indicate the natural feature that came out of clouds.

Erick was almost tempted to invent a new word.

“Arrow, would work, for the lightning-bolt shape.” Erick glanced over to his enchanting workspace, where a few [Renew] rune drawings sat. “I suppose that rune does look like an arrow curled up from tip to tail.” But he was unsure. The word ‘arrow’ in Ecks was already used to denote pointers and directionality, and Erick had already firmly established that ‘arrow’ as the English ‘arrow’ in his mind, which was also the same word used to denote the arrows that went with bows and arrows. Veird didn't have bows and arrows, though, as far as Erick knew. He could use the english word for it? But... It would be even more confusing to try and untangle the idea of ‘lightning bolt’ out of ‘arrow’ every time he said the word ‘arrow’ and didn’t actually mean ‘arrow’—

“Wait!” Erick said, “There’s ‘jolt’. Yes. ‘Jolt’ is good.”

Erick shot out a ‘jolt’ of Elemental Benevolence, striking the stone ground, creating a tiny black mark and a temporary sparkle of lingering power.

He smiled a little. He hadn’t done much with Lightning Magic in a long time, except way back at the beginning, so he had somehow forgotten the term ‘jolt’. ‘Jolt’ was used all the time in Medium-sized Lightning Magic, which were usually made using a combination of Elemental Lightning and [Force Beam]. ‘Spark’ was the term used for Small-sized Lightning Magic, which were primarily derived from [Force Bolt] combinations. The term ‘Lightning’ itself was used for the Large to Super Large castings.

Erick’s first spell he ever made, himself, was [Call Lightning], and that spell was both Super Large and also used the term ‘Lightning’ in its name.

Lowercase words could refer to the simple shape of a spell, though, and for that ‘jolt’ would work fine.

Erick suppressed his aura again and tried to make a [Lightning Spark] through [Force Bolt] and Elemental Lightning.

A spark of white lightning zapped out of his clear aura, fizzling the air as it instantly struck the stone floor, and then it was over. Erick inspected the stone. No lingering sparks. Only the tiniest bit of a discoloration—

KNOCK KNOCK

Erick almost jolted off the ground. He tentatively asked, “Hello?”

Fairy Moon’s voice came through the door, “Please do not destroy my mansion! We have places to practice newfound power!”

Erick frowned at the door, and then looked down at his floor. Then he went to the door, opened it, and said, “It’s barely a mark on the stone.”

Fairy Moon did not look relieved. “No destruction in my domain! And wear that amulet to produce more high-powered Ophiel; the [Renew] of Ar’Cosmos is taking too much time.”

Erick paused. He asked, “Is there a problem with the current rate of repair?”

“The rate of repair would be respectable at any other time, but your [Renew] rings work too well and Ar’Cosmos’s response to your request for alliance is being hotly debated in City Hall due to this circumstance.” Fairy Moon said, “You’re not invited to that self-interrogation of intents, but the news of your invention has already gotten out and gained wings.”

Erick straightened up; stunned. Slowly, his voice started to work again. He asked, “The rings work?”

“The rate of that repair is slow and steady, too, but three people have been healed of their half-dragon heritage, as of this hour.” Fairy Moon said, “That is why I have returned to this residence: Redflame is reviewing your runes and wishing to talk with you, if you should choose to chance another meeting of dragons inside Ar’Cosmos.”

Erick rapidly picked apart that statement, and said, “So that means you’re not keeping me captive anymore?”

“Here now is the turning of an age.” Fairy Moon announced, “You may walk out that window and venture back to Veird, if you wish. Or, you can cement your bargained-for civilization here, and now, on your own terms, now that everyone of effect knows the measure of your making.” With her bright green and pink eyes lightly staring at Erick, Fairy Moon asked, “So shall we travel to Redflame? Or shall I show you the door?”

A thousand thoughts flitted through Erick’s mind.

He landed on the most important series of thoughts rather quickly.

If he left, then Bright Smile could continue to be a problem. If he stayed, and helped Redflame, and acted like an actual ally, then perhaps he could circumvent whatever was going on with Bright Smile. Or at least he could take the measure of her Fate a bit more. Perhaps she was destined to be a ruler of many people, and that was why she had such a strong pull to Erick’s Benevolence. Or perhaps all Erick was truly seeing were the criminals Bright Smile would kill due to her harsh-on-crime stance, which was... A thing Erick wasn’t comfortable with, but... He left that thread of thoughts alone, for now.

Perhaps, all Erick was seeing were the enemy warriors that she was going to kill in the future, when all of the world came to try and stop the birth of a dragon nation inside the Crystal Forest. Or maybe he saw how Bright Smile would save his life one day, when all the world came for him.

Both were highly likely.

... Or perhaps Bright Smile was a simple warmonger, and when the world came for her, her response would be overly harsh. Theoretically, responding to attempted murder with murders of one’s own was not a bad stance to take, but it was when innocents got involved that a line was crossed. And since Bright Smile was the leader of a house of Ar’Cosmos, she would not resort to counter assassinations.

She would go to war.

And war was rarely the correct solution to any problem.

Erick looked back to Fairy Moon, and said, “Let’s go to Redflame and see what’s going on with the rings.”

Fairy Moon calmed. “This is the correct choice.” She gestured to the amulet sitting on Erick’s enchanting board. “Conjure some more mighty children and then we will leave to join Redflame.”

Erick balked. “Children?” He looked to Ophiel on his shoulder. The little guy took a moment, and then mirrored the action, looking back at Erick with a rapidly increasing number of eyes. Erick patted him, and then he looked to Yggdrasil. Well... Yggdrasil; Erick could see Yggdrasil being a child, for sure. Ophiel seemed pretty far off, though.

“Children as I count them; likely not as you list them. Mostly Yggdrasil anyway.” Fairy Moon gestured again to Erick’s amulet on the enchanting table. “Conjure some stronger Ophiel! You might not be here much longer and I want this place to be perfect.”

“Fine fine fine,” Erick said, walking over to the table. He slipped on his amulet and felt a warm chill as the spiky crystal thing joined its power to his own. He dismissed one of his weaker-cast Ophiel and conjured a replacement, and sent that replacement racing past Fairy Moon, to the dining room where the node lay exposed. “If I could transform back then I could conjure some much stronger Ophiel.”

Fairy Moon waved a hand, saying, “You already can.”

Erick stood stunned, again.

And then he [Paradox Shift]ed back to his Normal Form.

The transition was seamless. One moment, Erick had a core, the next he had a soul that fully filled out his body—

Weakness struck near instantly, but not in a normal way. Erick did not collapse to the floor, for it was like he had always had this sort of body, but he certainly felt it when he lost about 65 in all his physical Stats. His spiritual Stats actually increased, or at least his Willpower and Focus did. Without his rings, Erick recalled his Normal Form was at 25 in every category except for Willpower and Focus, which were at 165.

He had a lot more mana in his Normal Form, even without his rings, but more than that, he had Scion of Focus, which quadrupled his Mana Regen. His amulet seemed to work in both forms, too, though he had no real way of telling exactly how much it worked without viewing his Status, which was still outside of his capabilities here in Ar’Cosmos. At a guess, he suspected he had 11,000 Mana, and something like 43,000 Mana Regen per hour while at Rest.

Erick happily said, “Then let’s conjure some Ophiel.” He lifted a hand and—

Light puffed out of his hand. No Ophiel.

He had failed to cast [Summon Ophiel]? Yes. He had. Why—

Before Erick could understand what happened, Fairy Moon answered, “Script restrictions; Clarity does not control the mana here, and the distance to the Script means you must remain under 500 mana per Script Second.”

Erick began ritually casting Ophiel, manually using Elemental Mystical to decrease the costs, while he said, “I will be glad to never have to worry about these ridiculous little nuances after I leave.”

And when Intelligence started automatically pulling its weight again, dropping his mana costs to pennies on the dollar.

Fairy Moon shrugged. “You’ll be a Wizard yet, which eventually means removal from the Script and careful casting of meticulous magic. Prepare more now, for less pain later.”

A new Ophiel popped out of the air. Erick canceled three more of his low-Mana Ophiel, and began working on the next summon, saying, “Are we walking or are you moving us, and will we wait till I am finished with these? I also have some more experiments to do before I’m ready to move on to Redflame.”

Fairy Moon turned around, waving behind her as she said, “We are walking, so I await your arrival in the dining room when you’re done! No more destroying my domain, though!”

“Yeah yeah yeah yeah,” Erick muttered as he continued to cast Ophiel.

While he was doing that, he ran through some other tests of his new aura, just to be sure that nothing had actually changed.

And it hadn’t.

His aura was still filled with Benevolence lightning on the fringe edges, and deeper if one knew what to look for, but there was no more solid lightning inside his body. Wherever that lightning had gone... Maybe it had vanished into the depths of his soul? Erick looked harder.

... And found nothing. The lightning was there, but it was also not.

Whatever! Suppressing his normal aura still felt as simple as pulling back an offered hand.

Casting a jolt of lightning at a conjured stone boulder —not the floor— came just as easy as before.

His soul and body and everything had undergone a massive shift, but tracking that shift, or using his new Elemental Benevolence, would have to remain mostly intuitive until after he left Ar’Cosmos. He would still do some experimenting, though, for sure. Just later, after this new crisis with the Renewal Rings, or whatever they ended up being called—

Well.

New magic saving people from certain death was not a crisis. It was a boon and a blessing.

... But, not having enough of the new magic?

Now that would be a crisis.

Ah. That’s what was happening out there, wasn’t it? Yeah.

To better prepare for such a crisis, Erick decided to spend some mana casting a spell he hadn’t been able to cast in what seemed like a very long time. [Unbreakable Form]. He missed his [Personal Ward], and though [Unbreakable Form] wasn’t ideal, [Personal Ward]s were even less ideal.

This was because Erick would need to ritually cast any and all [Personal Ward]s while inside Ar’Cosmos. Therefore, any [Personal Ward] would not have the massive multiplier that Erick usually had. [Unbreakable Form] was 7,500 mana, though, and when he cast it twice, the 500 points of absolute defense —that was permanent until dismissed— would likely do a lot more for him than any degrading [Personal Ward].

And so, through a combination of resonance and humming and channeling mana into his aura, Erick picked the part of his soul that was [Unbreakable Form] and began the ritual casting. He messed up the first time, going too fast, hitting the 500 mana-per-second limitation even while he was trying to use Mystical to reduce his spell costs. Hitting that limitation was like hitting a minor ERROR message in the Script; uncomfortable tingles filled his body, emanating from his soul.

His second time he succeeded in casting [Unbreakable Form]. An ethereal fog of bright white lightning light settled into his body and then vanished, like mists evaporating under the sun. The ‘lightning’ part of it was new, and a bit startling, but... Whatever? Yes. Whatever. Erick would deal with that oddity later. He had to wait a while for his mana to regenerate enough to cast the spell a second time, but that was fine. The second cast was much the same as the first.

Erick moved on to testing his [Greater Lightwalk], next, along with [Lodestar].

As he flicked on those spells and played around with their interactions for a few minutes, he was, perhaps, both surprised and not surprised at what he found. Both spells had some sort of Benevolence Lightning-like thing happening with them, but only barely, and at the very edges. [Greater Lightwalk] more so than [Lodestar], though, and by a lot. [Lodestar] seemed to solidify his [Greater Lightwalk] into something only barely sparky.

When Erick worked those spells how he usually worked them, though, they acted like they normally did.

He had done something to his [Greater Lightwalk] and to a much lesser extent to [Lodestar], but as to what? Exactly?

Erick had no idea.