Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 255, 1/2

Erick hung in the void like a particularly bright jellyfish that had done several improbable things in just as many moments. He would need to do more improbable things if he was going to survive this mess.

Nothanganathor was hungry, and angry, and staring at Erick from the surface of the sun, his immense backlit body coiling in and out of the glowing white surface of the star, all of space filled with Malevolent, Red Lightning.

Erick was not ready for this, so he would try his best to escape, and if escape was not possible, then he would fight. That was his goal right now. His tools included his new True Wizard self, which meant that he wouldn’t die instantly, and a whole bunch of magic that would probably be useless against Nothanganathor, considering the Erased One, The Dragon Who Could Not Ascend, had just called Erick out as ‘number 17,212’. Erick imagined that most of his alternate reality selves would have died, unknowing, in that little bureaucratic illusion down there; lightning eating them away without them knowing that they were about to die.

Erick had avoided that major trap.

But the fact that he was subject to that major trap at all was a big deal. How had his ascension in the God Pact reality caused him to end up here, at all? Erick had thought he had stepped Forward, into himself. Not through a dozen or however many realities to end up here.

Obviously, this was a trap planted long before Erick ever got to Veird. It had not been a trap for him, specifically. Obviously. Rather, it had been a trap for all Wizards. Erick was just the latest in a long line of victims. How did Erick know this? Because of the fact that no True Wizards had been on Veird ever since the Sundering.

Any True Wizard ended up here, in Nothanganathor’s trap.

Why was Nothanganathor’s trap shaped like Earth Bureaucracy? Well. Probably because there was some sort of recursive magic happening in there that—

Well because—

Erick was thinking too much, and not escaping like he should.

Erick checked his triple status readout.

- -

Mp: 79,971/∞, ↑ [+6012, +a lot]

Hp: 78,510/∞, ↑ [+6012, +a lot]

Pp: 597/∞, ↓↓↓ [+6012, -6189] Warning: Under directed attack. Time to death ?? seconds

- -

Ah.

Nothanganathor was gradually killing him, trying to end him softly, without him able to understand he was under attack.

Erick rapidly reoriented his directed regeneration.

- -

Mana split; Soul, Body, Mind: 4%, 3%, 93%

- -

His mind cleared instantly.

He had been going down a deep thought hole.

His Status started to repair.

- -

Pp: 11,229/∞, ↑↑ [+16,773, -6189] Warning: Under directed attack. Time to death: nope

- -

And now he was here—

Nothanganathor’s face was still half-buried in the surface of the sun, his single left eye staring out at Erick, all the local universe flashing Red around both of them.

Somehow, in that moment, Erick got the distinct feeling that Nothanganathor was slightly miffed.

The solar system vibrated, a little less casual, but still holding the same amount of anger as before, “You’re going to be one of the annoying ones, aren’t you.”

Erick kept an eye on his Status but other than that he continually flew away from the sun—

“Get back here.”

And suddenly the sun inverted, light collapsing inward, Nothanganathor becoming a glowing white dragon resting above the event horizon of a black hole.

Erick watched as his Status rapidly switched warnings, going from a subtle mental crush to a massive physical and mana collapse. It was tens of thousands of damage per second; an attack that threatened to kill, but there was no actual draw of gravity upon Erick. Maybe there should have been, but there was not.

Erick smiled.

What was a simple concept like gravity to a True Wizard?

In fact, he was ignoring the gravity, so why not ignore the damage, too? As soon as Erick had that thought, the damage numbers on his Status flickered and faded.

This was what a Wizard War was, at its core. This sort of confusion. This sort of false narrative and intent to damage through absolute power and enforcing one's frame of reference upon the enemy. It was a battle of vectors and an ignoring of those vectors through Wizardry of one’s own.

Erick knew the damage he was able to take was, first of all, measured in ‘damage’, and not something as esoteric as ‘gravity’. Gravity could crush and kill near a black hole, for sure, but Nothanganathor was obviously not damaging himself, so this was not a true black hole threat.

Erick kept right on flying away, Red Lightning flickering into his tentacle body, Red power snapped up by Benevolence, Erick’s Status rising by tens of thousands of mana per second in every category.

The solar system harrumphed.

The light of the sun came back and the Red Lightning around Erick pulled away completely.

“I’ll kill everyone on Veird if you continue trying to escape. There will be no harvesting. Only death.”

“One doesn’t negotiate with terrorists!” Erick said, rapidly flying away—

Erick suddenly realized he was flying slower and slower for some reason. Nothanganathor and his sun weren’t getting further away at all. The sun still took up 90 degrees of the horizon. Maybe 92 or 93, actually, as split moments turned to full moments. The sun was getting bigger, because Erick was falling toward it faster than he could fly.

Ah.

Fuck.

Erick shouldn’t have responded at all.

He was somehow caught in a trap of conversation.

Nothanganathor taunted, “Scared little wizard, caught in an inescapable trap. Give in to the urge to negotiate. It might go well for you.”

“This conversation is over.”

And Erick meant it.

Suddenly the [Tether] on him snapped, and Erick rocketed away from the sun, the 93 degree angle of the celestial body turning to 92 degrees, then 90. Erick was moving fast, but not fast enough.

“It’s over when I say it is over.”

The solar system flickered and Red Lightning began to crawl around Erick, filling the void at such a far depth that it looked more like the universe was turning red than the crawling lightning it was. Erick flew faster. Within a flashing instant Erick had reached the edge of the enclosure, but the enclosure finished. Erick burst out of the Red—

Everything was fire and heat except for the mountains in three out of four directions. A tunnel led into the fire and heat down there, in the central direction. And then Erick realized where he was.

He was on the sun, inside Nothanganathor’s half-solar-submerged jaws.

Those mountains were teeth the size of Jupiters, or larger. The red and white land below was the surface of the sun. That tunnel into the mountains was a fraction of an astronomical unit wide, leading into a shining abyss of power and Red. It was the gullet of Nothanganathor. The nuclear fire of the sun was an ocean pouring down the Unascended Dragon’s throat, but at this distance, at these scales, nothing seemed to move at all.

“Be honored you lasted this long.”

Flames and Red and power exploded out of Nothanganathor’s throat, moving faster than it had any right to move. The front of the breath attack was not magical at all. Nothanganathor had noticed that Erick was absorbing his direct power, so he switched to something else.

Erick wasn’t sure how he knew it, but knew this was an atomic blast, directly from the core of the sun.

This, then, was a death—

But that was defeatist thinking.

Time seemed to slow as Erick thought, and probably as Nothanganathor fucked with time, as he usually did.

Erick had a way to survive this. He was a Paradox Wizard. It wasn’t like mana weighed anything after all, so Erick’s next logical jump was easy. The attack was too big to avoid, so he wouldn’t avoid it.

Erick flickered with multiple Domains at once, because that was something he could do now. Obviously.

Obviously, Erick told himself. Of course I can do this.

[Physical Domain] became a thing of harmonics and vibrations, absorbing some of the shockwave, turning absolute death into a wave to ride, like when he was playing around with the surfboards with the kids. [Lodestar] became a core of power that was unassailable yet easily moved. His [Pristine Benevolence] body and Mana Siphon was already doing a great job of absorbing all the actual Malevolence and Destruction mana that managed to touch him, so all he had to really do was ride the atomic blast coming for him.

And he also had to pierce through the Domain blocking him from escaping.

The sky of the sun was solid red; there was no void of space to be seen at all. Nothanganathor had drawn Erick here and also locked him down, aiming to crush him between a rock and a hard place.

Erick had not experienced Nothanganathor’s Domain except for a little bit in the transposition of grabbing him and placing him here, in the path of this breath attack. It had not been a direct Domain attack, either; simply a movement of space within which Erick happened to be. The Unascended Dragon was very good at Domain combat; he didn’t attack directly with his Domain until Erick was here, fully within Nothanganathor’s power. Attacking with an actual Domain was something you did against people you didn’t respect, or out of desperation, for the cracking of a Domain was debilitating.

Nothanganathor was suddenly scared, eh? Scared of Erick getting away?

It was better for Erick to think like that than the other possibility; that this was an inescapable trap…

But it was actually easy to think like that, now that Erick was watching atomic fire come at him and Red walls blocked his escape. Nothanganathor had tried to kill him in so many different ways already, and now the Erased One was trying this over-the-top breath attack? It was kinda pathetic that he needed to bring the full brunt of his power against Erick.

With a smirk, Erick made himself as weightless as light, and just as ephemeral.

The blast wave hit and Erick sailed away, shooting off at the speed of light and a little bit faster, because Time Magic was involved in how fast the blast struck.

Erick went sailing.

Domain met Domain, and Erick chose to quantum tunnel through the Red wall.

As the Red Sun vanished in the distance Erick was very glad that he hadn’t tried to use his own Time Magic back there. Obviously Nothanganathor was very accomplished at Time Magic; anything Erick would have tried would have been corrupted.

In moments, the Red Sun was maybe 40 degrees of the horizon in that direction; smaller than it had been since the start of battle of this major conflict—

The Red Sun flickered and Nothanganathor dissolved his Domain back down to something able to track Erick.

Red Lightning hung everywhere out here. It moved with impossible speed and accuracy, trying to surround Erick once again, but Erick was moving too fast for it this time, and every capture ended with Erick simply not being there, inside of the bubble of Red. Erick had seen that trick once; he would not allow himself to be captured and ported back to the jaws of that monster.

Erick hadn’t done any sort of counter attack yet, but it was time to do a few things of his own before Nothanganathor changed tactics—

Erick rapidly realized a few different things, as he contemplated his counter attack.

One: He was using a frame of reference of Nothanganathor as the center of the solar system of Veird. This was bad. Erick was never going to escape if he kept doing that. Sure, Nothanganathor had some gravity down there, but Erick wasn’t affected by gravity unless he wanted to be, as he had already decided earlier. Gravity wasn’t the problem here. Thinking of the Unascended Dragon as something that could not be denied, like the sun, was giving him way too much metaphysical weight.

Two: There was some part of Erick’s soul that Nothanganathor was tuned into, for there was no other way to explain how he had ended up in this predicament at all. There was probably Red in his Script-enabled Status. He needed to purge that.

And Three: The only Script spells that were not instantly nullified by the lack of manasphere out here were those spells that took place inside his body, or Particle Magic which caused a particle effect far beyond the initial start.

Erick started his counterattack with Particle Magic.

Erick focused parts of his spreading, tentacle-like body into his good-old standby, [Luminous Beam].

As he sparked the starts of quasar-based celestial prominences in his extending aura, he fueled the spellwork with Benevolence and Paradox, aiming to overcome all barriers of cause and effect.

Flickers of magic ignited into the most brilliant sources of light in the entire universe.

Erick became a spot of tangled brilliance in the endless Red void, his core so dense it was a darkness, while light shone from every tendril like hyperspatial knives. He didn’t rend the Red; he sailed through obsolete Red, flying faster than he had any right to fly, unable to be touched at all.

The sun was nothing behind him, and then it was gone.

Quasar knives parted the universe in front of him, and pushed him forward even faster.

- - - -

Erick passed into something that felt like a ripple in space, but which he recognized as multiple things at once. The first thing he recognized was the edge of Nothanganathor’s actual Domain; everything behind him was all softly oppressive, but now he was out of it and his magic shone brighter. The Red Lightning remained in the void all around, but it was lesser now. Less directed. More uncontrolled. More sparse.

Erick passed beyond the termination shock of the sun, into the heliosphere of Veird’s solar system as it traveled through the void of space, in the desolate edge of this [Renew]-shaped galaxy. The Red here was distant. Unseeable and unknowable outside of Erick’s enhanced senses. He was seeing faster than light could show. He was moving faster than light could move.

And then suddenly Erick was beyond the heliosphere entirely, having passed outside of the Red and the solar system, breaching the heliopause which was the final layer of delineation between Veird’s system and the void between the stars of the galaxy.

Beyond the heliopause lay cosmic winds, and nothing else.

Erick slowed down and then stilled, his [Luminous Beam]s fading away.

He couldn’t even see the sun of Veird behind him. It was there, somewhere, lost among the other stars of the universe…

Erick stopped looking before he drew Nothanganathor’s attention through sight alone.

Erick turned toward the void. He wanted to breathe.

So he turned mortal again, and breathed in air that was only there because he desired it. He breathed out air into the void, expelling a plume of frozen mist. The void between suns nipped at his body, touching his nudity, but otherwise did nothing. Erick floated there for a moment, breathing air that was not there until he made it exist, because of course it existed.

His Status was looking fine; tens of millions of Mana, Health, and Mind. There had been some time dilation in his escape, and probably in all of that entire encounter back there. How much time had passed? No way to know. Erick’s Status still had the same time readout as it had had all this time.

Erick was okay, for now. He almost considered going back to fight Nothanganathor, but that would be foolish indeed. It was probably only a matter of time before the Un-Dragon started making real threats and then following through with those threats, causing actual harm that Erick couldn’t escape.

It was time to proceed to the next phase, and hopefully this wasn’t jumping out of the pan and into the fire. Erick’s Lightning Path said that this was the proper way forward, but it was a weak sort of forward. He could go literally anywhere from here in order to fight Nothanganathor. He could even go back to Veird, to help them directly. Any decision he made right now, except going back to fight, could be the right one.

Erick “#17,212” had survived.

Nothanganathor would probably kill everyone else if Erick didn’t show back up with help.

And so, it was time to get that help.

Preparation first, though.

Erick held out a hand and plucked an iron chain necklace out of his blood, transforming iron into more iron and discarding the rest until he had something usable. He made it to resemble black scales, with a space in the center for a jewel. This piece of jewelry was much rougher than the one that had been his All-Seeing Eye. It still resembled Melemizargo’s or Erick’s own dragon eye, because Erick liked that style. It was a reminder of home.

With his other hand, Erick pulled a much deeper trick, plucking Yggdrasil’s Gift out of nothing, bringing it to himself, because of course it was always with him; Yggdrasil had said so. The white star of power shone with a radiance that was only as strong as Erick’s fingernail now, but Erick loved it anyway; it was a gift from his son. He put the little seed of power into the necklace, turning the Gift into an eye. Doing so dampened the outflow of light from the Gift into something much smaller; more ‘held’ and less ‘displayed’. He put the necklace on and it seemed like a much dimmer piece of him than all the rest, even though he was flesh and bone and nothing else right now.

Erick plucked a hair from his head and transformed it into a little thread of cotton; a minor transmutation, all in all. After copying and weaving that cotton, Erick had some decent clothes fit for a somewhat-king. The fabrics seemed to glow bright in the absolute nothing of the void, but maybe that was simply Erick’s fault.

He needed more.

So Erick shaved off a bit of fingernail and Wizarded it into platinum. One sliver of platinum became many buttons and embroidery and a few small pieces of jewelry. Erick did this because it was important not to appear like a pauper when greeting The Powers That Be.

Erick’s dragon horns were already out, all six points of absolute black jutting up around his head like a crown.

He was ready to make the Call.

He breathed deep the void once more, and then he extended his aura out of his body and began making a little lightward copy of the Veird’s solar system. There was the sun. There was Veird fourth from the sun. There were the other planets. And then he dialed outward. The solar system crashed down to a point of light, and in flowed all the galaxy, shaped like a ring of [Renew]—

The spell took itself over.

The universe crashed down to a uniform grey in every direction, and then it expanded, and expanded, and expanded, and expanded, and expanded, and expanded, and expanded, and expanded—

The grey parted, becoming cosmic strings and then galaxies and then here.

The spell flowed out into Everything and Elsewhere. The Call was made. It would hopefully be answered this time.

If Nothanganathor had seen this —which he probably had— he was probably mad. Good. Erick hoped so. Fuck him.

Erick only really worried about Veird and everyone he knew and loved. And yet, he trusted Veird to survive whatever might be coming their way. FENRIR was damaged, but it was still back there, back in the God Pact reality, and Veird itself was more protected than ever thanks to all those layers of adamantium and new magics surrounding it. Veird had the Lifeblood Heart. It had Solomon. It had dungeons, and soon dungeon slimes would spawn on the upper surfaces and those dungeons would fill with slimes, and fast, which would contribute a lot to any possible upkeep costs that the enlarged Script and Veird might demand.

They’d be fine.

Erick waited.

- - - -

He didn’t have to wait long.

There was a disturbance in the void.

A square of light appeared, like the cracks around a door.

The door opened slowly, invisibly, the ‘door’ not existent at all.

A cautious man appeared on the other side. He was blue-skinned and wearing what looked like normal clothes, except he had a fake half-cape of green leaves falling over his left shoulder. He was also wearing a spacesuit, but it was completely see-through. The suit reminded Erick of one of those home-spa infomercial things that people could buy for installments, wear once, and then promptly never wear ever again. Maybe they’d get to watch a movie while wearing it and it wouldn’t spring a leak, but it’d still be walking around wearing a good hundred pounds of water, and that just didn’t work out like you’d want it to work out.

The guy locked eyes with Erick instantly, but he also looked around, his eyes going wide, his heartbeat spiking. He spoke some words in a language that Erick didn’t know. Erick made a show of looking behind the guy, to the empty space beyond the open door.

The guy hadn’t stepped out at all. He didn’t like Erick looking behind him.

He looked at Erick.

He paused.

And then he bowed, saying something that was probably ‘sorry’, before he closed—

Erick flickered and moved inside of the room. While the guy suddenly panicked, yelling loud as he slammed the door shut—

And suddenly there was air in the room. Erick took a deep breath of real air. It tasted of a clean forest and subtle flowers. There was no manasphere, though. Erick tried to push through the walls and hit a very strong Domain. In the interest of peace, he did not test that Domain. His Lightning Path was telling him to relax a little, but not too much, so that’s what Erick did.

The greeter guy was not relaxed at all, even though Erick wasn’t making any threatening gestures. All these moments the guy had been yelling in some other language at the walls, and now the walls of the silver room were flashing pale red and the guy was freaking out even more.

Erick had thought that the people here would have translation magics, or something like that.

Obviously they did not, or they weren’t using them, so Erick decided to search himself for a spell that he had used many times in the past, but which he hadn’t needed to use much in recent years. It was still a part of his past, though, so Erick did a little ditty in his head, casting magic from another time and place onto himself.

I’m here on an important mission; so in with the clutch, [Language Acquisition].

It’d take a while for the words to start to make sense, but probably not that long—

And now the room was filled with angry words and small ports opened up in the walls and tubes came out and pointed at Erick, while the guy with the leaf half-cape rushed around Erick as much as he could, avoiding the ‘dangerous person’ in the room to bang on the other wall of the room. There was obviously a door on that wall, but it was a seamless door.

Erick just stood where he was. He waited.

More angry words.

Erick said, “Hello. I mean no harm unless you are Nothanganathor’s enablers, and then I mean you all the harm. Or perhaps I can free you from his oppression? I’m probably operating under a lot of misconceptions here, so how about we figure out how to end these misconceptions?”

The red lights stopped flashing somewhere around Erick’s ‘all the harm’. The guns pulled back. Erick finished. The guy stopped banging on the closed door.

An intercom came on and a person with a deep voice spoke in heavily accented, slightly excited, and broken Ecks, “Greetings. Is Veird have Ascended? You Veird? Or not Veird?”

Whatever the person was intending was not coming across much at all. Erick guessed they were enthusiastic about Erick being here? Hard to say.

The guy stuck in the silver box with Erick was not excited at all. He had slumped to the ground, on his knees, his head against the wall. Looking him over again, the guy’s clothes were nice, but not super nice. He was likely a guy thrown out here to the wolves, to whatever had made the Call, which they were —probably— forced to respond to; they did not choose to respond to the Call because it was the right thing to do.

Erick had envisioned the Call as some sort of ‘call up the people in charge’ sort of thing, but the Call was looking more like an emergency SOS, maybe, which required people to respond? These guys were just… normal people. Maybe.

Erick wasn’t going off a whole lot here, so he decided to be truthful. “I am a Wizard who Ascended with the help of Veird.”

The voice was truly excited now, “You Ascended Veird! Okay! You fight fight? Or talk talk?”

“Talk talk.”

“OKAY! Talk talk time! I hand you better talker. You speak Margle? Fluent? Tabarikia? Draconic?”

Erick easily switched to draconic, saying, “Is this the language you mean? This draconic?”

The guy huddling on the floor calmed down and turned. “Oh. Sorry. I—”

“Excellent,” said a third voice. “Hello, greetings, and welcome to the Margleknot Emergency Response Communication Yorddle. MERCY.”

Erick almost asked what a Yorddle was, but he decided to go with the flow.

“… And that answers our first question. You are Ascended; otherwise you would have asked what a yorddle was. To answer your unasked question: a yorddle is a thing that invites communication and responds similarly. It is the mechanism by which you summoned that star map and then ended up pinging us, here at Margleknot.

“There are many cities like Margleknot, but we consider Margleknot the center of the universe.

“You are currently on Layer 0, which is where you are right now.

“The layer you came from is Layer 789, at the location of Nothanganathor, Arbiter of Veird. Please keep this name in your personal records should you wish to return to this land. We have already left your previous layer behind.”

Erick blinked, feeling a hateful wrath coil within at the mention of Nothanganathor and ‘Arbiter of Veird’ in the same sentence. He pushed that feeling aside, as he focused on the fact that he had already left Veird’s general location in the universe.

All Erick could really say was, “Okay.”

“Excellent. You appear to be non-hostile. Would you say this is true?”

“I am very hostile toward Nothanganathor and would like help erasing him from all universes. I am also hostile toward all evil, but otherwise I am rather benevolent.”

The formerly worried guy was now sitting on the ground, his back to the not-door, looking at Erick and frowning, his eyes saying a whole lot of ‘really?’.

The intercom voice said, “Violence is permitted in Layer 1. Here in Layer 0, the main city, violence is not permitted. Do you agree to this?”

“… Tentatively, yes.”

“That’s all we can really ask from Ascended, so your acknowledgment of the main rule is appreciated. Know that as an Ascended, we cannot control you, but you are a single person, and we have a lot of Ascended here who like the peace, and a lot of normal people who would simply die in a real fight, so keep that in mind if you get angry.” The voice said, “Please keep your various forms of mana, magic, resons, syth, usurpage, kindling, smoke, fire, breath, pulse, cultivation, accretion, talents, powers, and all other forms of reality altering inside of yourself at all times. The Dragon District is the only place where you can freely let yourself be a dragon, and all that that entails. Do you understand?”

“I do understand.”

“Appreciated. Moving on—”

“Pardon me, but I have some questions of my own.” Erick looked at the guy sitting down. “Was this man in this space suit a sacrificial pawn in case I turned out malevolent like Nothanganathor?”

The guy nodded, whispering, “That guy is a fucking psycho.”

“Ah-hem,” said the voice. “Our greeter here is fully soul-sleeved here in Margleknot; he would not have died if you had killed him. Other people are not so fortunate as to have this job, Jeremy.”

Jeremy —whose name was probably not spelled how Erick was thinking it was spelled— waved a dismissive hand, ignoring the voice, whispering, “Glad you hate him, too.”

Erick felt a weight leave his shoulders. He almost chuckled at the relief. These guys weren’t evil. They were just papershapers and call-responders; normal people.

The intercom voice said, “Ahem. Death is painful, of course, so we ask that you refrain from causing it. May I have your name?”

Ah.

It’s like that, is it?

Erick wanted to see them try.

“Erick Flatt.”

A little wind passed through the space. They had tried to affect him with something when he said his name. It was fairy magic, though, which, of course it was, which Erick had been prepared for with a question like that. ‘May I have your name?’ Really? Fairy Moon had helped Erick get over all of his fae magic weaknesses long ago, even if she wasn’t actively trying to help; she still helped through opposition.

Jeremy raised an eyebrow at Erick.

And the voice said, “Ah… So. That’s the other major question. Uh. Fuck. You. Uh… You felt that, didn’t you.”

“I did. Hello, fairy.”

Jeremy’s eyes went wide and terrified.

The voice on the other side of the intercom didn’t fare much better. “Uh… Will you… Uh. Forgive?”

“I demand to speak with someone who can help me erase Nothanganathor from all worlds, and who would want to help me do that.”

“I can do that!” said the voice, once again excited.

And then the silver walls fell away like the prop walls on a movie set falling, the ceiling and floor vanishing in the very same moment.

Aside from seeing what he was seeing, which he would get to in a moment, Erick checked the manasphere first.

The air was almost dry in feeling, but it was also filled with different manas of all kinds, along with something like a Domain. Maybe tens of tiny Domains, actually. Erick had trouble understanding what he was feeling, but he rapidly recognized that his mana senses and various other sensing capabilities only went out to about a hundred meters in every open direction, and maybe a meter into the ground. Beyond all that was either a density of confusion that prevented all mana senses, or a Domain underground that prevented everything.

There was power here. Erick trusted his mana sense about as much as anyone could trust their mana sense in an unknown environment filled with odd Domains and strong powers, which meant not much at all.

Visually, the place was much more understandable.

Erick stood upon grasslands wide enough to build a city or two, but Erick wouldn’t really call it ‘grassland’. More like a forest clearing. Everywhere on every horizon there were trees of all colors and shapes, not a single one looking like the other one, except in the most general of ways. And then there was the ten-thousand kilometer tall tree that towered above all the rest. It was gold and green and shimmery, and mostly dark.

Crystal buildings rose in the distance, beyond much more normal-sized trees. The grass was soft under Erick’s bare feet while the lights of ten suns, each of a different color that added up to white, were warm upon Erick’s face. More suns shone beyond the canopy of that tree for sure, but they were beyond Erick’s sight.

The very second the ceiling evaporated and the walls fell to the sides, Jeremy’s personal spa space suit disintegrated and he sprouted wings and dashed fast into the grasslands, eager to get far away. Two people waited outside of the silver chamber. Other people were in the distance, completely disconnected from this event right here, with Erick. They flitted around like they were fairies, which they probably were. Only two people mattered right now, though.

A little pink boy fairy, about a meter tall, floated on pink sparkles beyond a corner of the room.

A shadowy girl fairy, the size of a normal person and wearing greys and blacks, stood on the grass beside pinkie. She had no wings. She looked almost normal, except her ears were pointed and her face structure was distinctly fae.

Pinkie announced, “I have your person right here!”

“You still owe me, Parando,” said the shadowy person.

“What! No!” Parando said, “I paid off my debt to you, too. This guy is an Ascendant arisen from your shitty little cosmology. I found him for you!”

Erick rapidly churned through that information and, assuming that what the guy said earlier was true, and since fairies never lie directly because it physically hurts them, Erick said, “He still owes you because he responded to a normal Call, as his duty requires of him.”

The shadowy person grinned wide and stared Parando down.

Parando went wide-eyed. He began to back away. “… n—”

Shadow ate Parando as one would eat something that was already inside one’s mouth. Erick wasn’t sure, exactly, how she did it, but that’s what she did. And then she looked at Erick. “You’re the real deal then. An Ascended risen from Veird?”

“Technically yes.”

“… I don’t like that ‘technically’.”

Erick said, “And I don’t like that Nothanganathor is apparently enabled by this ‘Margleknot’.”

“… I like that about you. You might work anyway. I aim to kill the bastard that unmade my universe, and you’re going to help.”

‘Her’ universe?

Ah.

Erick saw a familial resemblance now.

“Would you happen to be Shadow?”

Erick hadn’t said that name with so much emphasis; it had merely happened that way. Saying it like that had done something weird to Shadow. She puffed up a little bit, everything about her deepening and thrumming, and then she became herself once again. It was as though a cloud had passed overhead, even though there weren’t clouds anywhere.

Shadow looked at Erick, and… started to say something, but then she Looked at him, and said, “Oh. You’re a great grandchild, or something. Then I’m glad I ate Parando! Bastard should have seen that before I did. I should eat him again when he reforms… And I think I will.” She asked, “So are the dragons not doing the whole scales and wings thing? Base human-shape these days? But with the horns? I like the horns. Come on. Let’s let great granny gran gran get you settled into Margleknot. We got a lot of shit to cover to take down Nothanganathor, and most of it is the intractable bureaucracy of this shitty place.”

“… It’s nice to meet you, Shadow. I fear you are operating under some misunderstandings, but we can clear them up. Fairy Moon and Gregarious are doing well now, if you wish to know more about them.”

Shadow hummed, then said, “I probably am operating under misunderstandings. I put too much of myself into that universe and you didn’t return any power or memory to me like you should have... Okay. Well. Moving on. Good to know about mom and dad.” Shadow gestured the city in the distance, walking, saying, “So who the fuck are you?”

Erick felt a surreal bit of joy as he walked with Shadow, the main creator of the universe that Veird had come from, saying, “Erick Flatt, Wizard of Benevolence, Apparent King, Gatemaster, and planar from Earth, not from Veird.”

Shadow froze. She said to Erick, “That’s all good, but that last part? Leave that out.”

“No. I’m not going to lie, and especially not to fae.”

“… Shit. Fuck.” Shadow scowled and walked, saying, “Okay. Okay. I can work with this— You’re still a part of my Old Cosmology, obviously, or else you shouldn’t have been able to reach Veird—” She rounded on him. “You’re not some space-faring human person who goes around mucking up other people’s universes, are you?”

“Not to my knowledge. Are you a space-faring fae who goes around mucking with souls and Darkness in order to create universes?”

“I have been known to do this from time to time.” Shadow smirked. “You got any other names? The only one unique to you is probably the Benevolence one and ‘Apparent King’ and your base name, none of which matter to me. I don’t know Urth.”

“People kept calling me Xoat.”

Shadow hummed. “He’s long dead. You’re probably not him. If you are then that would be good for us against Nothanganathor, but you’re probably not him.”

Erick nodded, then said, “So we sort of skipped past introductions back there and I assumed you were Shadow. But who are you, exactly?”

“Some fae will try to trick you like those ones back there, but I never will as long as we’re on the same side.”

“That’s not good enough. Claim the mantle on your own, if you can.”

“A task easily done.” Shadow kept walking, intoning, “I am the Daughter of the King and Queen of a Realm Beyond Mortality. I stole a painting of two possibilities from the Prince’s workshop and made a universe out of them. A universe which became a remnant. A remnant which became your genesis.

“I was not born Shadow,” Shadow said, her stride evening out, her back straightening, everything about her changing from commoner to Power in Truth, though nothing physically changed at all. “I became Shadow in the Truth of my own creation.

“I claim the mantle of your partial progenitor. I claim the mantle of creator of the Painted Cosmology, of the founder of the Radiant Depths, of the splitter of the Crack Between Worlds, of the spiller of the Blue Ocean, of the adventuring queen and scoundrel king, of the older prince and the youngest daughter and distant cousin who leaves a letter that starts you on an adventure, of the Warrior, the Mage, the Wizard, the Shade, the Priest. The mother of dragons. The father of leviathans. I claim the progenitor of your draconic shape, and of the founder of your ultimate rise to power as an Ascended.

“I claim all this for myself, and you would be wise to heed my words and my wisdom in our joint effort to erase Nothanganathor and his Malevolence from our reality, for in your Ascension you have tied yourself to myself and my cause. For this time, for this future, we are as one in purpose: To stoke the fires of our Shared Existence and spread into Infinity, while burning down all who oppose our Glory.”

The world had taken on a shadowy quality as Shadow spoke, which Erick suspected was either on purpose or simply a side effect of her expression of her True Self. When she was done, her clothes were finer. The suns were brighter and shadows deeper. Darkness loomed in the hidden gloom.

Erick said, “I appreciate the actual introduction.”

“Yes. We probably should have done that first but I am rather excited about you being here. Do you know anything of what is happening to Veird? In truth? Also, you’re handling this very well. Have you been Ascended for long? I can’t imagine you have been Ascended for very long. Nothanganathor eats everyone he can.” Shadow scowled, saying, “He is breaking all the rules of his stewardship by doing that, but I haven’t been able to prove it to the satisfaction of the Enclave. Hopefully you can prove it for me.”

Erick processed Shadow’s gush of information and said, “I know some of what is happening with Nothanganathor, but not completely. I have been ascended for maybe several hours, or months. Time got wonky back there. How does time work here? Depending on how time works here we can either have this conversation long, or short. I do need to get back with allies and erase Nothanagnathor from existence.” He stressed, “I do not care for the bureaucracy of this place, if it empowers Nothanganathor. If I need to, I will purge whoever I need to purge.”

Shadow smiled wide. “Love that attitude, but we’re not tackling the Big Problems right now. You have Ascended from Veird, and thus Nothanganathor is going to come back and try to smack you down once again, and we need to get ahead of that. I wish to save my universe and rekindle that fire to once again grow large and cast deep shadows. Do you agree with the general thrust of this plan?”

“… Tentatively.”

“Good.” Shadow waved a hand. “Time is relative; don’t worry about it. For us Ascended, we spend exactly as much time in Margleknot as we need. Time has been fluidly frozen for me ever since the Sundering. I have failed to win against Nothanganathor in the courts for ten thousand years, or maybe just a summer. Probably closer to the former than the latter. How long has passed on Veird since the Sundering? 7,400 years? More than 10,000?”

Erick relaxed a fraction, his tension fading slightly. With that sort of time dilation there was no true need to get back to Veird, because, yeah, he was a Paradox Wizard. Time was navigable now. Theoretically. “It’s only been 1452 years since the Sundering, though with the Forgotten Campaigns erasing memories and probably time, it might have been more than that.”

“Ah…” Shadow frowned a little. She looked at Erick. “What is this about ‘Forgotten Campaigns’?”

“I get the distinct impression that you are not allowed to truly see or know Veird. Is this correct?”

Shadow went silent. “… I suppose we should start with bringing you up to speed, and then you can tell me your own story. I’ve argued myself to every color of face against the Enclave, so it doesn’t really matter if I get news of MyEverything until later.” She glared at Erick. “But mark me now, Erick Flatt. I will have complete news of Veird before we go into court.”

Erick usually had a position of ‘trust, and then let them break trust first’. But that was a bad idea with fae. They would always break trust at the worst possible time for you, which would always be the best possible time for them. Giving Shadow the trust of a true alliance was not on the table right now, even though Erick needed allies.

“You’ll have as much news as I feel like giving.”

“… I agree to this.” And then Shadow sighed. “I suppose I’ll give you a lesson on Margleknot before all the rest, too. We have as much time as it takes.”

“I assume that if this all works out in our favor, that we end up going back to Veird with some sort of army or mandate to eliminate Nothanganathor?”

Shadow smiled, cackling slightly, her fangs glinting in her wide maw. “That’s one of my major goals.”

“And what is your ultimate goal?” Erick asked, Lightning Path flickering, demanding to be grounded. “Are we truly on the same side?”

Shadow’s voice gained an eternal depth as she shared her very Truth, “To experience everything everywhere forevermore, with possibilities expanding or closing or becoming or ending, to help and harm, to raise and collapse, to bring forth and to banish, and to grow. To grow. To grow.”

A Dark wind flowed.

The suns shone brightly.

And Shadow stared into Erick’s soul, asking, “What is your ultimate goal?”

Erick stared her right back. “For the good of all, and every individual, we give assistance to those in need and do what we must to prevent apocalypse before it happens, to found and cultivate an evergrowing cycle of less war, less horror, and more hope, for now, and for all always.”

Moments passed.

“… Hmm.” Shadow said, “That’s a good one. Did my Father help you with that? Or did Mother? Sounds like something Father would say more than would Mother.”

“She did.”

Shadow smirked a little. “Nice to meet you, Erick Flatt. This is how you get around Margleknot.” She stopped walking and stood still. She raised a hand to the air, straight up, palm flat, saying, “Attention Margleknot. This one requests travel from this Timeless Forest to The Mortal Lands, just outside of the Dragon District.”

Words appeared.

Acknowledged.

Fairy Goddess Shadow detected. Unknown Ascended detected.

Priority Scan of new Ascended demanded.

Scan complete.

Request denied.

Orders: Shadow to depart. New Ascended to wait for the next portal.

The words faded and a portal of spinning green and gold appeared. Most of the land beyond was obscured by the swirling power of the portal, but Erick could see tall dark crystal buildings and bright lights and people everywhere. Erick had been walking with Shadow toward the very same arrangement of crystal buildings the distance beyond the grasslands of this forest.

So there had been no need to walk at all?

Was the walking just so that Shadow could talk to him before she summoned the portal? Probably. Whatever the case, it seemed that Erick and Shadow would be parting ways right now, due to whatever machinations of Margleknot were happening behind the scenes. Kinda surprising, but not too surprising in retrospect.

Fairy Moon had often spoken of how they needed to be ready to be servile toward the true fae of this ‘New Cosmology’, should they ever show themselves. That’s who Erick had been ready to meet, back when he made the Call to the Universe. Meeting Shadow had been a surprise, but Erick had been ready to meet someone on this level of power for a while now.

Shadow was fully surprised, though. Fully and completely. “What? No. I want—” She had been about to get angry, but she decided against that. She looked to Erick and rapidly said, “That’s how you should be able to get around Margleknot. This is unusual. Look. Erick. It was nice to meet you. Find your way back to me when you’re done with whatever this is. You might be able to get a direct portal and—”

Shadow to depart.

Now.

The portal pulsed and Shadow began to slide across the grasslands, into the portal.

She called to Erick, “If you can’t find me directly I’m usually at the Black Crystal Tavern in the Dra—”

Shadow swirled into the portal, her voice fading as she vanished.

The portal snapped shut.

The world around Erick for 25 meters in every direction turned subtly stronger as the eyes of some great Power descended upon him. The mana that was outside of Erick’s body was removed from his ability to sense. Erick’s interior flickers of his Lightning Path were the only source of mana sensing left to him, and it told him to wait.

Another portal opened. A golden wall lay beyond.

Power flowed from that portal like a gold and green tsunami, the grasslands turning into a field of flowers and sudden trees, the sun turning bountiful and the very land itself nourishing Erick through his bare feet.

Please join me.

Erick walked his Lightning Path, through the portal, to another land of Margleknot.

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