Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 250, 1/2

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

But he tried anyway.

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

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

Erick hoped that wouldn’t happen today.

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

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

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

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

… He was lying.

Okay.

Well.

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

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

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

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

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

… Oh.

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

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

… Okay. So. Duh.

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

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

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

Ah.

That made more sense.

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

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

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

So it took time to kill…

Oh.

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

Hmm.

It wasn’t a truly clear thought, though.

Time to clear up some misconceptions.

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

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

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

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

The Red Sparks did not advance.

Erick was glad for that.

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

A lightbulb went off.

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

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

A lightbulb went off for Solomon, too.

And still, the Red Sparks did not advance.

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

“What about mana from side realities?”

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

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

Okay.

Erick had reached the edge of understanding.

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

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

Anyway!

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

Could a Creation Wizard become a ‘Big Bang?’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And that was how Erick was going to win.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was right there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- - - -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Erick waited.

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

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

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

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

Melemizargo rolled his eyes. He said nothing.

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

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

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

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

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

“ANYWAY!

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

“Anyway.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“And Benevolence is helping now, too!

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

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

Erick paused.

Melemizargo was focused hard on him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“That’s most of how we win.

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

Erick stood strong. He was sure he was right.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Erick waited.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Melemizargo nodded. “Naturally. Who else?”

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

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

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

“Astrophysics does exist. Try Stratagold.”

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

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

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

“… Huh.”

- - - -

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

Everything he knew was speculative, but it seemed correct.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Probably best not to think about that fact too much.

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

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

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

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

- - - -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now that was what Erick had been expecting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Erick saw Abarnikon and Alfonin look at Kromolok.

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

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

Alfonin shrugged.

Erick smiled at that.

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

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

“It is,” Alfonin proudly said.

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

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

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

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

Erick smiled a little. “Of course.”

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

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

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

Ophiel chirped, “I’m okay!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’ll be back soon, Ophiel.”

The little guy chirped, “Later daddy!”

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

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

A more paranoid man would have thought this a trap.

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

Kromolok’s eyes went a little wide.

Erick nodded.

And Kromolok looked away, thinking.

The two of them walked for several more steps—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Piece of cake.”

Kromolok led the way.

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

He wasn’t even sure where he was going—

Ah.

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

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