Chapter 249, 1/2

Chapter 249, 1/2

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

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

And Erick realized something else about it at that moment.

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

But it was sparking again.

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

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

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

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

But what the fuck was Oozy Stormcaller doing here?

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

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

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

But he would still get to the bottom of this.

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

But, of course, he had to tell Quilatalap.

Quilatalap would understand.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quilatalap jolted a little. “... What?”

Erick frowned. “What you... Just said?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Erick took a moment to calm himself, too.

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

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

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

“Prudent. Which way is the fastest escape?”

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

“Could she have rerouted the escape clause?”

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

Erick waited.

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

All escape clauses could be rerouted.

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

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

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

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

A shadow stood up from the floor.

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

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

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

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

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

That was not nearly a good enough answer for Quilatalap.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He didn’t collapse, though.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verrod breathed and regained his composure. “Ready.”

“Quilatalap. Your go,” Erick said.

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

The world flickered black—

- - - -

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

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

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

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

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

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

Erick paused.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Erick almost roared—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That was the Prophesied Storm.

The Sundering Source was here.

The Anti-Meme was here.

Oozy was a conduit for it.

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

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

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

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

Because Oozy was doing this.

So what does ‘Oozy’ want?

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

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

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

Red sparked across the world.

- - - -

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

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

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

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

Oozy narrowed his eyes.

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

Time [Return]ed to the past.

- - - -

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

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

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

Wait.

He had been here since the beginning.

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

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

He needed to regroup.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Red filled the air.

- - - -

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

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

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

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

- - - -

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

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

“A time, a space, a sacred brace

“Enacted here; Benevolent gr—”

“DON’T.”

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

The sky darkened. The morning retreated.

Melemizargo took his throne.

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

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

“I wanted to tell them, Melemizargo.”

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

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

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

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

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

Erick felt his stomach drop. “Oh fuck.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the sun?

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

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

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

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

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

Erick sighed. “Okay. This is a lot.”

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

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

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

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

“Moving on.

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

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

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

“Know this, too:

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

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

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

... Erick lay down on the white stone floor.

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

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

Melemizargo remained, silent.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Are you sure?”

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

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