Chapter 273, 2/2

Chapter 273, 2/2

Erick stood on the very top of Mount Everest, just because he wanted to see the world from the highest point. It was gorgeous; clouds and cold and the bright sun overhead. The air was thin, and wind whipped into Ericks clothes and across all the little colorful flags strung over the mountain peak. Erick remained undisturbed by the cold, and the flapping of flags was almost zen-like.

Some coat-clad sherpas trekked up the mountain with their clients, reaching the top as Erick stood there. They saw Erick. They paused. All of them wore thick coats and had climbing gear on, and two of them were breathing in oxygen masks, but Erick was still shaped like a very buff Irish man in some tight clothes, and that was all.

One of the clients called out, What the fu

The sherpas instantly told him to shut up and say nothing.

Erick just smiled, and with the freezing air tugging at his hair and at his voice, he said, Dont mind me. I just came to see the sights.

And then Erick floated into the sky and vanished in a snapping pop of resons and Layer-stepping, leaving Mount Everest behind with another weird story for sherpas to tell each other, and some [Greater Regeneration]s active on every single person on the mountain. Erick truly could have stayed longer, but he had some scoping-out to do.

Erick didnt go too far.

First, he popped over to Layer 99,082, just one Layer further from Margleknots direction as regards to Earth on Layer 99,081. And there was nothing in that solar system. Sure, Earth was still there, but it was a rocky nothing with thin layers of water and atmosphere, and no moon in the sky.

Layer 99,080 held no Earth at all, though the Solar System was still there.

Erick went back to Earth on Layer 99,081, and with a quick trip to the moon, Erick settled in on the dark side of the moon, because the moon was empty and so was Mars, and so was all the rest of the solar system. He could build anywhere he wanted out here, and no one could even see him do it, unless they moved around some satellites. Erick found himself actually quite mad that humanity was still stuck on Earth.

Maybe they needed an impetus to explore again.

And Erick kinda wanted to poke that hornets nest anyway.

So he decided. He was going to make a home here, and it would be permanent, and ostentatious. He wasnt going to do anything to help Earth right now, but he would definitely be back later. Probably sooner, too, at least as much as this specific timeline was concerned. Mainly, though, Erick was here, and he saw people in pain, and he couldnt stop himself from helping at least a little. Or at least that was the rationalization he gave himself as he made some plans.

With the tickling of static-filled moon dust in his nostrils, having gotten there just because of static forces and probably Ericks influence on the world, Erick raised his hands, and cast a spell that he hadnt gotten to use on Fenrir.

[Seeds of Atunir].

The dark side of the moon was currently half-facing the sun, and it had almost no atmosphere at all, so the light and dark was rather harsh. Craters were like black crescents upon the pale grey surface. But then light blossomed in the void. A white dot coalesced from nothing and then shot into the harsh shadows below, where it buried itself and then began to grow.

Golden light vibrated through the lunar surface, sending cracks across the chiaroscuro land. And then towers began to grow. They rose like spires, like bamboo, floor after floor popping into existence and then widening at the base as the tip of the spire grew and grew upward. The surface of the moon dropped away from Erick as it broke in the thrust of the spires, and Erick floated away from the growing magic, to give it more space.

As the first tower finished growing, the golden glow of it all turned to white, and the top ten floors of the tower sprouted short branches filled with giant [Kaleidoscopic Radiance]s, like the tower was holding a full head of grain, ready for harvesting. This grain shone down light, and along with all the similar lights throughout the entire structure, and all of the other magics therein, a river flowed from top to bottom and life spread out across the lunar surface. Gravity took hold, and permeable, shimmering barriers of mana held in the air far away, thanks to a little bit of Domain work that kept it all together. Tens of kilometers of space was suddenly made livable.

Slimes popped into existence everywhere, on every floor, and on the surrounding land, and soon, flickering systems of [Renew], [Undertow Star], and [Terraforming], began to take from the life that now existed, to solidify the system.

Absent any Malevolent actors, the whole thing worked without a hitch. As Erick watched the systems come online and then reinforce themselves ten times over, in ten redundant ways that would all repair each other if they were messed with, Erick was pretty sure that this really should have worked on Fenrir

Nothanganathor had prepared too well. Erick wasnt even sure what he had done to throw Erick here, to Earth. Had it been a surround and consume strategy? Perhaps.

As little slimes walked around and they gained little Dark Marks in their souls, Erick wondered if the God of Magic Nothanganathor would come for those Marks, or at least if he would sense them. Melemizargo certainly could Maybe. Maybe Shadow could, too?

The magic of the tower only took 20 minutes to set up in such a way that only a Wizard could take it down, or a very concerted effort of poisoning the land and nuclear-bombs-every-hour-for-a-year.

Erick made another tower, and then he started adding some details.

Balconies like shelf-mushrooms. Visitor centers. Signage and low walls, just so people would know where they were, and so that rivers went where they were supposed to go. Gardens went up next, filled with all the vegetables and fruit that anyone could ever want, all of it edible. He even put up some meat-like plants, with sausage-like tubers that drooped from heavy branches. Those tubers grilled up wonderfully, if one were so inclined to do that, and they were filled with proteins; they were basically big beans, almost like the Erick Beans that Erick had made back on Veird. Erick had eaten these meat beans on Margleknot when he went out to eat with Yggdrasil, and they had been delicious.

An hour after landing on the dusty, airless surface of the Moon, Erick now stood on the edge of a white city of towers that grew upward from water-soaked soil, their branches forming balconies, their insides forming floors that housed slimes that tumbled and played in the water slides. Fresh dirt grew strange plants that grew under rainbow radiances, or which glowed in the darker spaces, providing their own light into the void. Air and water poured out of platinum-raining clouds here and there.

It was good.

Ericks Lightning Path was telling him something. It had been flickering the whole time he had been building all of this. Ericks skin prickled and a subtle rage held in his heart, because he knew what was coming, now that it was closer.

Erick turned, and said, Hello, Nothanganathor. What the fuck do you want?

Nothanganathor stood beside Ericks Welcome Center, looking like an older elven man with white robes and white horns. Erick wondered why he was an elf, but then of course he was an elf; elves were both the big bad evil guys of the Old Cosmology, and also the main powers of the Old Cosmology. Erick had never seen Melemizargos human-sized form, but that guy had probably been elven-shaped, too.

After the Sundering, on a newly-created Veird, Nothanganathor had the elves killed first, because he hated them the most.

The Greatest Evil Erick Had Ever Known, said, I want to make a deal.

Erick scoffed. And then he laughed. And then he shot a [Luminous Beam] into Nothanganthors face. Erick had denied atomic magic in this space, so it didnt do any big explosions. Light from a quasar went right at Nothanganathor, and the God of Magic ignored it, like Erick was shining a flashlight upon him. Nothanganathor allowed the attack to continue for a moment longer. He was about to wave his hand and stop Ericks spellwork, but Erick did that instead.

Nothangaanthor said, You are understandably upset.

Erick composed himself, and said, You would be, too.

Yes, I would be, and I have been. You have seen the results of my anger. This is why I am here to make a deal, because I dont want you coming after me like I came after Melemizargo. He began, It is anathema for the Darkness to kill its Wizards, and to take away the power of those it has given power to, so I have no real lever to use against you aside from the general one of killing everyone you love and making your life a living hell. But I am above that, now. I have won, and you

Get to the fucking point.

Nothanganathor nodded. Do whatever you want, Erick, and dont come after me.nove(l)bi(n.)com

Erick almost thought about it. He almost went down a thought hole. But then he realized that he would get more information out of Nothanganathor if he aired his thoughts, so he said, The fact that you are here trying to make a deal at all, means that I can win against you.

Correct. Nothanganathor said, And that will incur me murdering everyone you know and love. I even stripped Malevolence from Earth right before you got there, but I can certainly put it back. Chances are, that if you win, you could even undo everything I have ever done to get to this point. But I have already won, Erick. Winning once is all I ever needed. I have secured my victory in ways you can never imagine. If you even get close to winning, then Ill be back to having Malevolence, and thus on a trajectory to be right back to where we are now.

The war would be a repeating cycle, because I wont kill you, because I need you here to act on behalf of the Fractal, to take up the job of where I left off; to cleanse this universe of corruption.

The only question is how much pain are you willing to endure to get to that point, and at which point in our future wars do you finally falter, either won over by my good stewardship of the Dark, or by how well I treat those who work with me. I will endure anything I have to endure to ensure this reality is the real one. Can you say the same? Nothanganathor rhetorically asked, You once called yourself the ultimate forgiving sort, so how long do we have until you eventually forgive even me? Its not like you wont have your daughter, and Earth, and all the rest of everything you want. The only thing you do not have is Melemizargo, and you didnt even like him all that much. He deserved everything I gave him, Erick, and more.

The sounds of rain in bamboo-like towers filled the bubble habitat. Water rushed down waterfalls and through nascent rivers. Lunar dirt collapsed into those rivers, as water expanded across the surface of the moon. The water froze when it got out of the protected space, piling up like a glacier.

Erick felt a rage settle into his mind, and body, and soul, like a cup that was overfull.

Forgiveness is for those who desire it, or those who I can force into compliance. You are neither, and you will have NOTHING.

Erick desired Nothanganathor GONE

Suddenly Nothanganathor exploded into gore which then turned into white sparks that burned away everything that was left. The God of Magic and Darkness was gone, but he was obviously still alive. Erick had just forced his removal

Erick fell onto his ass, his emotions too wild to understand right now, his body seemingly not working. But that was just a chemical reaction. Too much was happening and had happened, and it was all catching up with Erick and his too-fast heartbeat. Just a chemical reaction. Nothing serious. Nothing was wrong with his soul. Nothing was wrong with him

Nothing was wrong with him.

Everything was wrong with everything else.

Nothanganathors very words were destabilizing. Dangerous. It was the same as the Shades, in Ericks first year on Veird. To listen to Nothanganathor was to be dazzled by words while he stabbed you in the back and drowned you in power till you were mutated into something else and made to act even towards your own detriment. Listening to him was a terrible thing. Thinking how he wanted was even worse.

And now he was a fucking god, and everything was horror.

- - - -

Erick ended up sitting on his ass for a good hour and having a good cry half of that time.

Eventually, Erick was on his back on the surface of the moon, looking up at the void sky, at the stars, and Earths sun. Nothanganathor didnt live on that sun at all Erick had done tests while he was crying; a lot of tests, some of them reaching through time and all the way to the solar surface and Erick was glad the bastard was gone.

As his tears fell away and turned to ice on his skin, Erick sighed out once more.

He needed to collect himself.

He also decided he was hungry as fuck, so he zipped back to earth and got himself to a nice restaurant in Toyko Japan, because that side of the world faced the moon at the moment and he walked into the entrance area, wearing nice black robes. There was a bar and some people were wearing white, and Erick almost transformed their robes for them, but he stopped himself at the last moment.

White was a terrible fucking color! Black was best!

Erick was 67 and massive compared to everyone else, seeing as he probably weighed a good 275, and all of it was muscle. That fact turned heads almost as much as his robes. Other people were wearing robes, because thats what kind of restaurant this was, but those were formal robes. Erick had on mage robes. Many people wondered where the fuck he had come from. Some cosplay event? Or was that just a new style?

And now that Erick was here, his whims were faltering, and he was thinking straight again. He found himself calming, and he was glad for it. Why did he pick this place? It was too fancy. The bar in front was open to everyone, but the main restaurant in the back was special.

This place was the kind of restaurant that required long reservations and rarely had any openings at all, but Erick wanted to treat himself. Thats why he had come here, he decided

He realized he was thinking like he was back on Veird for a moment, expecting to get prompt service and for people to know him, but

This was fine.

Better than fine.

Erick could relax and be a nobody for a while. For a day or three.

He was still so unbalanced.

Why was he here?

Whatever.

Erick walked past the bar, down the garden path, spilling out invisible mana as he went, filling the world with his sight and senses, to check on the world as he walked. Nearby bamboo fountains filled with water, dumped themselves, and then clicked when they turned back up, only to fill with water again, as people in nearby buildings spoke of this and that, and the people in the restaurant up ahead talked about matters of family and one girl talked to a floating camera as she ate dinner. By the time Erick got to the front door, he knew enough of the language to be passable, though reading it all was a bit beyond him, for now. Reading Japanese would take at least another twenty minutes of seeing everything around him.

The host of the restaurant was a man dressed in fine Japanese robes, standing behind a thin podium with a touchscreen on top. A bunch of words and time slots were on that screen. The man smiled as he looked up at Erick, and, trying to be inoffensive, said, Good evening, sir. Do you have a reservation?

He knew damned well that Erick didnt have a reservation

Erick calmed himself.

Erick pulled out a small gold bar about the size of his palm, and set it on the counter, speaking in broken Japanese, Its gold. I want a nice dinner with some of that good beef you have in the back. The aged stuff, or whatever that stuff is set aside in the big cooler. I have more gold, and I want a lot of food.

The host paused as he listened to Ericks broken words, his eyes focusing on Erick, but he looked at the gold four times, quickly. When Erick was done talking, the man said, I am sorry sir, but we have a 6 month waiting list and cannot accommodate you Erick had been about to get mad, but the guy saw that and rapidly added, But I can make a call to other people on the list, and ask if they would like their spot to be bought out. Buying out a slot is currently 1.5 million yen.

Erick realized that he shouldnt get mad and that he appreciated these guys doing their jobs. People probably came in demanding slots all the time. What was 1.5 million yen? Like $10,000? Maybe something like that. How much was that bar of gold? Erick didnt bother to check up on current prices even when he had handed out 250 kilos to Betty and Mary. One kilo was more than the price of a buy-out, for sure had to be, right?

Erick was probably too high strung right now.

Erick simply said, Sure. That works.

A woman in a kimono stepped out of the main dining room and walked up to the host. She had been looking in from behind a grate of carved wood shaped into phoenixes and dragons, and now she was here because she needed to talk about the gold that Erick had left out on the host desk. She pulled the host back behind a curtain and the two of them spoke in some hushed tones about accommodating Erick.

The host came back out, bowed, then said, We apologize for the delay. We will have an appraiser come and verify this, uh, gold, while you take your seat.

The woman in the kimono did a little curtsy, asking, Will sir be alone today? Or will someone be joining you?

If someone joins me then I will be surprised. Just put me anywhere visible.

Erick wanted to be around people and especially strangers, right now. He did not want to be alone.

The woman curtsied again, and then led the way beyond the carved phoenix and dragon archway, into a fancy room of black lacquered wood, gold accents, and paper sculptures serving the place of paintings on the walls. The area was open and quiet, and tables sat far apart from each other, with drapery hanging just off of the ceiling, just to denote one space from another. The woman took Erick to a low table beside a window overlooking the city, and a nice pillow would be Ericks seat for the evening.

It was to the side of the main dining room, and Erick would be eating in the same room as what appeared to be a celebrity taking photos of her meal, with a tiny drone that floated around her, silently and cleanly, an older couple on a nice date, and some shady people with guns hidden in holsters hidden in their robe-jackets. Erick found himself glad for the humanity, just being there. Even the shady people were a great addition.

Today was a time of relaxation, and planning, and also seeing how Earth would react to small magics, so this was a good assortment of people to have in the area. Erick hadnt really chosen this place, but now that he was here, he knew he had picked it because the food looked great, and the woman taking photos of her meal seemed famous. Her drone was the fanciest one Erick had seen, and it even had some sort of official news-like sigil on it, so it was fine for her to have it out and about, or something like that? Erick wasnt sure about what was going on with the culture of drones flying in the air and taking photos and whatever, but it seemed fine.

This was a better introduction of magic to the world than trying to appear on the news. Simpler. More cozy.

Shadow smiled at the gold bar. One good thing about backwater worlds is that they really do make you feel rich.

Ill try not to disrupt too many economies, but some small disturbances can be fun. Want to go to the theater in Paris? Or somewhere else? After dinner, of course.

Nope! Shadow leaned in a little and clarified, Yes, I do, but Im barely going to remember this, so Id rather go on a nice date or ten after we win.

That works, too.

The rest of dinner was rather wonderful, and there was lots of it. Erick and Shadow spoke of nothing and everything, and it was wonderful.

Some investigators tried to show up because they were watching the influencers live stream, and Erick found out that every single camera in the world was under AI observation, and that AI had flagged their dinner as investigation-worthy. But Erick simply weaved some illusions from a few kilometers away and got those investigators turned around in hallways that never ended. This action raised the alert level of Erick and Shadows date to rather high levels

Shadow giggled as she sipped her tenth glass of sake, saying, So this is a date?

Of course it is, Erick said, But since this timeline is going away, we wont be doing anything besides eating well and having a nice conversation.

And playing tricks on government employees.

Theyll be out of those hallways by the time were finished here. Erick set aside some of their empty plates, and the servers came in and rapidly replaced them, as though waiting for that exact moment to move, which is what they had been doing. Erick dug into the new bowls of rice, saying, We dont have to finish for a while, though.

Shadow smiled in a wonderful sort of way. And then she glanced over to the influencer, who was long done with her dinner but she was taking an hour to eat her dessert, because her stream had never been this popular before. Erick was rather certain he had seen some official notices come through on her phone, too, demanding that she remain there and let the drone observe.

The gangsters and the couple had moved on. It was just Erick, Shadow, and the influencer now.

Shadow asked Erick, Is she a reporter? I cant quite figure it out.

I think its some evolution of a cultural icon, co-opted by the government of Japan in an official capacity when needed. Erick guessed, Like an unintentional reporter.

Lets invite her to dinner.

Sure. Erick stood up and waved at the girl, who had to be, like, 25, and said, Hello, miss! Want to join us for dinner? Were going for course number 34 soon.

The woman froze.

The feed on her phone, sitting next to her plate, absolutely exploded with people calling out DANGER DANGER!! and Go for it! and Get a gold bar out of it!. An official message in a separate orange popped up and said, Do it.

That orange message focused the world for the girl.

The woman thawed, put on her best face, and turned and stood, then she bowed to Erick and Shadow, and said, I apologize if I have offended with my overlong stay for dessert. It was just too interesting Ah delicious, to not savor it. I graciously accept your invitation. And then she walked over and sat down on her pillow.

Her drone fluttered around the back of her head, taking images of everything. Before, the drone had been moving kinda lazily, swishing this way and that, but now it moved methodically, quickly, and precisely. Erick raised an eyebrow at the drone, and the drone began moving less methodically, but that was a lie. Someone was controlling the drone with highly advanced flight algorithms, or something, whereas before it had just been autonomous. Erick let that deception stand.

But it wasnt really a deception, was it? Everyone knew that those cameras could be taken over at any time. Erick was the one who was just now catching up. To the girl, the fact that Erick was here, doing something and he had asked for her to join them, meant that he knew he was being watched, and that he wanted an audience.

The woman was a ball of sunshine as she spoke, I just dont understand how you two have put away all that food so far! Its all so good, but I was struggling to finish that tiramisu. Phoenix Feather sure makes a wonderful dessert.

Phoenix Feather was the name of the restaurant, and the woman was still deep in her part as an influencer, but she was tense beneath all of that social armor. She was also mad at being used for whatever Black Dragon promotion was going on right now.

Shadow set a small shot glass in front of her that did not exist on the menu, for Shadow had just created it, and the shot swirled black with bits of white light every so often. It wasnt the original recipe. It was tuned for mortal senses. Try this. Its called a Vivid Gloom. Shadow looked to Erick, adding, Its gotten me through some tough times these last few decades.

As the woman was torn between trying to say no and graciously accepting, and wondering where the fuck the drink had come from, Erick made his own shot.

Erick set an absolutely black drink in front of the woman, saying, This one is Darkness Enthroned. And then he set two more on the table; one for Shadow, and one for himself, saying, I tried making it once last year, and I was pleased with the result. I never got to share it with you before now, though.

Shadow smiled at him, at that, and then she set down two more Vivid Glooms, one for each of them. Bottoms up!

Erick took his shots, and Shadow did the same.

Shadow winced a little, smiling wide. Thats good stuff! You did that one well, Black Dragon.

Erick smiled. I liked what you did with Vivid Gloom, too.

The influencer eventually took her shots, too, though she had to be peer pressured by her feed to do so. She had been prepared to be bowled over with strong drink, but the Vivid Gloom went down well, and the Darkness Enthroned left her looking quite perplexed. She asked, Those were really good? Was there alcohol in them at all?

Erick said, Not a lot of alcohol, no.

Shadow said, Theyre usually served in a tall glass, but shots are a good icebreaker.

What was in them? she asked. I didnt see them on the menu?

Erick smiled, and ignored the question.

Shadow did too, for she asked, So what is it you do, girl? Im not familiar with She indicated the floating drone. All of this.

The girl chuckled and said, Im just a drone girl. Im sure youre much more interesting. What do you do? Is your name really Shadow?

Everything I want to do, I try, though I dont always succeed, and yes my name is Shadow, Shadow said. Black Dragon here is much more interesting, Cyan Charmer.

The influencer, named Cyan Charmer, who had her name pasted everywhere in her stream and even on her drone, and which Erick didnt really want to know, smiled a little and said, I love that lifestyle and that name! You can call me Ceecee; everyone does. Ceecee said to Erick, And Black Dragon is another interesting name.

Erick chuckled. He asked, I assume youre up on popular culture, Ceecee? Ive been out of the loop on Earth for a while now. Whats been happening here?

Her feed popped up on her phone, another orange alert, telling her to start at the year 2000 and work her way up. Whoever was on the other end of that line was incredibly smart, narrowing down Ericks areas of concern based on the rest of their conversation tonight, but they werent too honed in on what was happening right now. They wanted to be. They would be, eventually.

The servers came out with another plate of food.

Erick and Shadow ate.

And Ceecee happily began, Oh, history is such a fun subject! How about we start with the end of the prosperous times of the 1980s? My grandmother got her first job working as a secretary back then. She was my inspiration

The girl could talk, and it was rather entertaining to hear it all. The conversation mutated soon into a wonderful night of drinking and talking, with Erick and Shadow playing games with hinting at bigger things, and each of them pulling stuff out of their sleeve that should not be up their sleeves at all.

Shadow pulled out a rabbit at one point in time, then said, Whoops! holding it by the scruff of its neck. She put the rabbit back, laughing. The rabbit ended up popping out of the shadows in the garden out front, where it began munching on the flowers. Erick chuckled.

Ceecee stared at that display of something. She was still on the fence about what was happening, but she was slightly drunk now and simply enjoying herself. Her feed on her phone was going absolutely wild. More than once, Ceecee stared at the millions watching her stream, and then she had another sip of sake.

- - - -

An investigator opened a door in a hallway and another hallway led to another street ahead. The guy brightened, saying, Guys! I found the way out!

A different investigator yelled at him, Its a lie! No you didnt!

A third investigator cried on the floor, mumbling about never getting out.

The first one yelled at the other two and forced them through the open doorway, down the hallway ahead and then to the open street beyond. The third investigator cried in absolute joy to see the sky again, the lights of the streets, and the cars, and all the buildings lit up in the dark. All at once, all of their phones chimed a good ten times, or more. Messages that they had missed piled up.

The first investigator read the latest one and saw the time on the clock. Shit. We missed the entire event. Were still going, but now were on detecting.

The second investigator instantly said, Im not going.

What! You cant disobey an

Im not going either! The third investigator shouted, I quit.

Oh come on...

The first guy eventually talked the other two into keeping their jobs.

Erick felt bad about all of that, so he put some gold bars in their pockets.

That freaked them out more than anything the previous five hours had done, but when they were through panicking, they had some gold. There were tax forms and personal investigations in their future, but those would pass soon enough, and whatever had happened in Phoenix Feather just got more interesting to those watching the world.

It was fine.

- - - -

Erick walked with Shadow on the moon, under the stars, the city of towers glittering behind them, under a pale thickness of atmosphere. Out here there was nothing, though. Just staticky lunar dust, craters, and two people who would probably be called gods back on Earth if they were to show themselves, but neither of them wanted that.

Erick said, Time travel isnt going to actually erase this timeline. You were just saying that for effect.

Shadow took a moment before she began saying, In some ways, I was not exaggerating at all. You go to the past, and you do anything at all, and you change the present. Thus, this present no longer exists. Shadow said, Oh sure, it still exists, but everything has changed. Its like youve just Established things, but more directly. The only things that truly remain are people like me, and you, and others of similar nature, who remember how it used to be. But you didnt actually doubt my words. You were more scared of what it meant to do things like that.

Erick smirked. Seems crazy to worry about being scared of my own power right now.

Are you frightened of messing up, or how easy it would be to change the world through true power?

The second, more than the first, though I messed up with [Onward] once, though that was probably more Nothanganathor than me. Erick said, Im rather certain that even if I get it wrong the first time, I can just try again and that is what scares me. No one should have the power to arbitrarily decide things for others. Nothanganathor shouldnt have been able to remove me from the fight like that even though we were trying to End him Erick sighed. And yet more and more I see myself needing more power so that I can make those decisions, so that people like Nothanganathor are not allowed to make those decisions. And yet, just as it was wrong of him to do that to me, and to everyone else, its unkind to be able to position myself to have that sort of power over people, and yet time and time again, I have been shown that if I dont step up, then more unkindness will exist because I have not stepped up and taken that power away from those who shouldnt have it. Erick said, The simple fact is that I shouldnt have that kind of power, either. I know I make bad decisions sometimes, and I absolutely make the wrong decisions for certain people, some of the time, just by virtue of me not being them.

Shadow grinned as Erick spoke, and when he was finished, she said, The fact that you can say all that and mean it, means a lot, Erick. This problem of yours seems like a good internal battle for a ruler to wrestle with for all time.

Erick stared out into the emptiness of space.

They walked in silence for a little while.

Erick broke the silence, I was contemplating turning into a godzilla-like being and wading into Tokyo Bay and handing out gifts of magic and healing. Just sweep a several-kilometer-long wing over the entire city and heal every single person as well as solve whatever problems I saw, like trash or construction projects needing to be finished or broken roads that needed repair, or whatever. But now I see that impetus as a call to injure the entire world with destructive chaos. Looking back on that thought I cannot believe that I actually contemplated ruining the world in that way. He added, I mean I wouldnt even fit into Tokyo Bay without breaking something.

Shadow giggled as Erick spoke of breaking the bay. You could stand on the water.

Erick tried to smile, and he sort of did.

Shadow took his arm around hers, saying, Or you could accept that you have bad impulses sometimes, and then move past them. You could tell me what godzilla is, and we can catch up on whatever goes for stories around here.

Erick held onto Shadows arm, smiling a little, feeling bad that she was trying to make him feel better. She had been through a lot in the last few decades or however long it had been. Time had gotten wonky, apparently. It would probably get more wonky, soon enough.

But for now

A movie marathon sounds wonderful and Thank you, Shadow. For being here.

Shadow smiled softly and held Ericks arm a little tighter. Its okay if you want to break down. Its a fresh wound for you. I spent five years drinking myself to death and getting myself killed trying to personally murder Nothanganathor. Didnt work much. Didnt make fathers and mothers She stopped talking. She put on a smile that was way too forced. Thank you for reaching out.

Something had happened to Fairy Moon and Gregarious, huh?

Probably a lot.

Nothanganathor had probably Erased a lot more than Poi. He had probably lied about how much he had done to secure his victory. He had lied before. He would lie again. Erick didnt need to know the details. He knew he knew enough.

Erick held it together for three more steps, then he fell to his knees and tears flowed. Shadow was right there with him the whole time.

- - - -

Erick sat on a pillow, atop a layer of stone in a garden on the moon, under the bright lights of the baseball-field lights of the towers. Stars glittered in the void beyond. Shadow sat in front of Erick, on a similar pillow. Slimes tumbled across the lands outside of their slightly-raised platform, and water flowed in rivers, and waterfalls, and fell in small, localized rainstorms atop orchards and vegetable vines.

Shadow began, First, we must confront the Self