120, 2/2, End of Book 4

A familiar, long-dead caldera filled Erick’s vision. Black, rippled crust extended off into the distance, where house-sized spikes of volcanic glass shredded the constant fog that flowed into this dark, holy space.

Phagar stood to one side of the black caldera, looking much like Erick.

Melemizargo stood on the other; only half his full size, or maybe a bit smaller; a nod to the size of the arena, perhaps. He flexed his wings, dispersing the crowding mists.

Erick stood between the two gods, and did not let them speak first. He demanded, “I will be Phagar’s Champion. I will kill Tania, and then this… This horrific night will be done.”

His words echoed across the caldera for a stretched moment.

Melemizargo’s deep voice rumbled, “A Championship will not save you.” He stated, “None of the gods can help you face Tania, and even I cannot help you much more than I already have.”

Erick did not expect Melemizargo to be here, and though his words were worrying, his stance did not matter right now. Erick looked to Phagar.

Phagar did not look happy. He said, “I cannot.”

Anger. Regret. Frustration without outlet. Emotions warred within him, and they were enough to drown, but Erick held himself above the metaphorical waves, and asked, “Why?”

“Because you come to me in the hour of your greatest need, demanding something you don’t truly desire, with consequences far beyond the ‘Now’.” He added, “And Tania’s plan is to capture your soul and save it for Sundering in her own hour of greatest need, when she needs the temporary power of an untempered Wizard.” Phagar spoke with a finality to his decree, “I will not add my own power to hers.”

“… Ah.” It was a cruel sort of calculus, but Erick understood. “Very well. What else can you offer, then?”

Phagar smirked, then looked up to Melemizargo, but spoke to Erick, “What I can offer is to slip you into your body of five minutes ago.”

Melemizargo scoffed.

Phagar continued, “Everything that has passed will have been but a particularly vivid [Future Sight].”

Melemizargo spoke, “Gifts of Time are useless in the face of power.”

“He could win, if given another chance.” Phagar said, “Your Champion is not Absolute and now Erick has a bit of knowledge of what will come.”

Melemizargo ignored Phagar and said to Erick, “Erick. This is not the way you will win. You look to the wrong institutions for help when the answer has been staring you in the face this whole time.”

Erick narrowed his eyes at the former god of magic, asking, “Got any better ideas that don’t involve me selling my soul to you?”

Melemizargo laughed. “Ha! That is not my way.” He said, “There is only one thing holding you back, and it is not a lack of time or space. Five minutes will not matter. Even five centuries of learning would not help you inside the Feast Barrier. No! Tania might be the sword that commits the final bloodletting, but the truth is that only one thing will be killing you tonight, and that is the Script, itself.”

Erick stilled. He said, “Then what do you propose, Melemizargo?”

Phagar sighed, almost small enough to miss.

Two more gods stepped into the black caldera. Rozeta, looking angry in her pantsuit-wearing white-wrought human body. And Koyabez, looking resigned, and wearing his usual loincloth.

Koyabez said, “There is only one way this night ends well for the world, my old friend.”

“Phagar is right about one thing and one thing only. Tania is not Absolute.” Melemizargo huffed, “But your solutions are too weak.”

Rozeta spat, “Only because you have put too much of yourself into that wretch for her to ever fall to anything other than her own hand. So get to it, Old Man. Tell us all your desire, and how you plan to damn Erick by offering him power, just how you have damned every mortal who has ever been born into this tiny world, and crossed your evil path! Show us, yet again, how you will damn this world with every chance you get! But lo! Watch as we watch him deny you, as he should, and then still die to Tania, as would any other archmage, Wizard or not. For you cannot be trusted. You cannot be bargained with. You cannot be allowed into the Relevant Entities of the Script.”

As Rozeta spoke, eyes opened in the fog all around; the eyes of deities, both major and minor. Atunir stood in the fog, surrounded by plants and farm animals, alongside Sininindi, who stood beside a storm-tossed tree. On the other side of the caldera stood the alabaster form of Aloethag, and the armored presence of Sumtir, the god of Righteous War. Between those gods were dozens of other divine eyes, belonging to other gods, and other beings.

Angels stood watching from the mist, some ancient, and some ascended mortal, all witnessing the events unfolding around them, all with great fervor and hatred in their sight. Some looked to Erick. Some, at Melemizargo. But the majority gazed to the other side of the caldera, at the demons.

The Demons, both incani and long-dead transformed elders, held much the same hatred in their eyes.

But they all listened to Rozeta rail against her father.

Rozeta declared, “But besides that! What is really happening here is that you believe that tonight is a forgone conclusion. Erick is already dead. Tania has already gone on to her final war. The only thing actually happening here tonight, is that you are hoping for Tania to redeem herself over a few centuries. That she will grow a spark of empathy, or maybe that Hollowsaur will taint her with his own Blessing. You are hoping to claim your own form of legitimacy through a weakening of our collective resolve, and the removal of humanity and thus the Quiet war.”

“There are many plans, my dear daughter.” Melemizargo said, “Any of them work for my needs.” He turned to Phagar, “But this Gift of Time is not enough. Therefore—” He turned to Rozeta. “Break him from the Script, or I will offer the service myself.”

A hundred voices decried the Dark Dragon, from both sides of the caldera.

Rozeta spoke louder than them all, “No.” She glared at her father, and said, “But you already know I will not do that, for what you actually want is the temporary suspension of the Script Second to give him a taste of your dark power so as to drag yet another Wizard one step closer to your all-devouring abyss.”

As the notion of Melemizargo’s offer went unconsidered, Erick moved right along onto Rozeta’s ‘conclusion’, demanding to know, “You think I’d fall for that sort of trick?!”

“There is no ‘falling for it’. It is a fact. Power demands to be used, and once you have a taste of unfettered magic, then you will want more.” Rozeta said, “I have seen it a thousand times before.”

And now, Erick was truly angry, “What-the-fuck-ever! You want Tania dead, yeah? This is a big deal, yeah? Besides! Sininindi and all the rest of you are planning on murdering me before Yggdrasil outgrows his bonds, so what does it really matter if I fall to the Darkness in 75 years! I’ll be dead by your hands well before then, all of my own magic will already be out there, and killing Tania right now is much better than the plans she is enacting against the whole world, at this very moment!” Erick demanded of Rozeta, “So I’ll take that suspension of the Script Second.” He turned to Phagar, saying, “And I’ll take those five minutes, too!”

Rozeta stared at Erick, her face a mask hiding much under the surface.

Melemizargo chuckled.

Erick spat at him, “Shut up, Dragon. Fuck you, too.” He pointed to the entire audience of the caldera, saying, “And fuck all of you, too! Gods damned fucking warmongers! I see what you want! You want the war! Assholes!”

Melemizargo laughed louder.

Voices carried out from the fog, raising higher, arguing against Erick, or for their own agendas.

Koyabez silenced them all as he grabbed Erick’s attention, saying, “I need you to use the artifact spell I gave you to empower your [Blessing of Empathy] into an instant-cast spell, Erick.” All voices turned silent as eyes turned to him. Koyabez looked up to Melemizargo, and yet spoke to Erick, “You must ensorcell any Shades you wish to offer a second chance before you destroy Tania, for breaking the Barrier will allow them all to get away. Fallopolis is the only exception, for you have already wrapped a part of her in something better than who she was before.”

Melemizargo shrugged; it was an odd look on a dragon. “Acceptable.”

Koyabez turned to Erick, “Know this: Goldie, Farix, and Lapis lied to you about accepting your Blessing.”

“… Ah. Wonder how I missed that.”

Melemizargo explained, “They selectively divorced a part of their souls and themselves from their beings in order to accept those Binding Bracelets without triggering those Binding Bracelets. The divorced parts will come back to them when the danger is over. It is a common technique for appearing like a different person for a little while, and is a necessary skill to master before becoming a proper member of My Clergy.”

Erick would have sighed for an hour, if he had the time. “If they weren’t pressured into a corner, they would never have even acted as though they needed my collar around their necks, would they?”

“Absolutely not.” Melemizargo said, “It is a complete anathema to who they are to accept such a thing. They will likely still fight you if you try to force this soulwork upon them, so be ready for that.”

Koyabez said to Erick, “Empathy should never be a collar, and I am sorry you had to make yours into one.”

Erick asked, “Any tips on how to handle Caizoa?”

Koyabez said, “She only followed Tania because Tania was going to win. If you’d have seen her before the Aerie broke, then you too would have thought she was on your side. And she will be, if you win.”

“Yeah… Well?” Erick said, “That’s all still up for debate.” He looked to Rozeta.

Everyone looked to Rozeta.

Rozeta scowled. She raised her hand, and a pulse of light went out. “A vote, then. You have ten seconds to vote or abstain.”

Ten seconds passed way too fast, and also like slow torture.

Rozeta glanced to the air. She frowned a little, and then she read the results with a monotone voice, “67% to deny Erick all that has transpired in this caldera and to let the world happen as it already has.”

A black rage dimmed Erick’s sight, as he muttered, “Sometimes I really hate democracy.”

“Yes. Well.” Rozeta said, “This is why we have a Goddess of the Script. Someone in charge to lead the ignorant, scared masses who vote in blocks to keep their Quiet War running.” She announced to the caldera, “You’re all outvoted.” While the Angels and the Demons roared out accusations and anger, Rozeta pointed at her father, adding, “Fuck you, dad. This is your singular chance to do right by me and Veird.” She turned to Erick. “You’re getting your Suspension of the Script Second. Don’t you make me regret this, either.”

Melemizargo bowed toward his daughter, while the caldera erupted in further anger.

Erick blinked.

– – – –

Erick blinked again.

The future condensed into a faded possibility. One of a hundred varied futures, already dimming as Erick came to back where he was, running his spells he had been running, while Fallopolis yelled to his side.

“No time to talk!” Fallopolis said, holding her staff up high. “Here they come!”

The Aerie had already exploded. Bulgan and Queen had yet to make their first appearance.

One blue box appeared, followed by a second.

 

Seconds stretched unfathomably long. Time began to repeat.

Goldie vanished. Farix stepped far away. Lapis panicked, froze, then thawed out half a moment later, a calm descending over her body. She turned to shadows as several trinkets cracked and broke from her fingers, her neck, and around one of her ankles.

Erick knew Bulgan was about to appear. He looked at the people on his side, but gave a small part of his perception over to the part of the sky that would soon contain Bulgan. He knew that the Shade was likely looking for his blind spot, so if he looked to that part of the world, then Bulgan might change tactics.

Erick waited.

Bulgan appeared, almost exactly where he had before, already smashing forward, trying to scatter the group and then go in for the kill on whoever he could.

Erick activated several spells at once, including the one had been saving for what seemed like a very long time.

 

‘What appropriate flavor text, as Jane would call it.’

Of the several spells Erick cast, the one that actually caught Bulgan off guard was the [Stillness] cast upon his whole area. Bulgan’s smash turned him into a glowing ball of light, with barely any sound.

Erick was currently a ball of light, too, but different. His sunform glowed like a minor sun, and then began to glow brighter, and brighter, as [Death’s Approach] fully settled into his being, multiplying some intrinsic part of himself into untold heights.

Fallopolis laughed, saying, “Ha! Fuck you, Bulgan!”

Oh you have no idea, Fallopolis.

Erick felt a rush. The mana of the world slipped into his sunform exactly as fast as he cast. Erick preemptively moved an Ophiel to Lapis, who was just floating there, watching the blossom of light in front of them all.

Bulgan sucked in all of the light created by bursting Erick’s [Stillness] and instantly went for Lapis. Erick queued up a [Harmonic Counterspell], and kept it queued. The Ophiel next to Lapis was just for insurance purposes.

It worked just as well as it had the first time, instantly draining 15,000 mana and negating Bulgan’s attack, but this time Erick had 177,000 mana, and that 15,000 came right back, ready to be cast again.

Bulgan tried to move backward, to escape Lapis, but another [Harmonic Counterspell] killed Bulgan’s intended use of his [Greater Shadowalk]. He faltered, midair.

Lapis’s implosion didn’t miss, this time.

Bulgan turned inside out, then collapsed further inward, trying to flash some sort of magic into the air to get him out of Lapis’s attack, eliciting another activation of Erick’s [Harmonic Counterspell] for 120,000 mana. It was Bulgan’s last-ditch attempt to evade. It failed.

Erick’s mana instantly refilled.

He watched as Bulgan’s body became a speck, smaller than a fingernail, hanging in the air just in front of Lapis, who looked completely surprised. Erick was surprised, too. A part of him had not expected that. A part of him thought back to all the pain Bulgan had caused.

Bulgan had done horrible damage to Spur, and Frontier. It was his attack on Frontier that had caused Erick to accidentally kill a person for the first time, when Erick used his [Withering] on the city in order to save it from the invading monsters. Those two souls had forgiven Erick, but he had never forgiven himself; not really.

Bulgan had also murdered untold hundreds of human adventurers over the years, inside Ar’Kendrithyst. He had been the first person known to have become a Shade in the last 60 years. He had probably done much, much worse after his ascension to Shadedom, but Erick had no personal knowledge of those possible events.

Bulgan had killed over a hundred thousand people at Candlepoint, when he let the ballooning spider horde descend, all in order to draw Erick into a battle for control of that place.

And he had stymied Erick at every turn. But now, he was dead. Erick even had the notification of that death.

The fight wasn’t over, though. Erick got his head back in the battle.

But…

Queen did not appear.

There seemed to be a lull in the fight, so Erick took that moment and made something of it.

He took a part of his central sunform, and returned that part of him to solid reality. His Silver Star manifested in his center, as he vibrated his entire being with his [Blessing of Empathy], and cast another old spell that had been lying dormant in his Status for a long time.

 

The world flexed outward, then inward. Silver light splashed across the dark heavens, as the Silver Moon appeared up above in a way it certainly should not have been able to appear. That moon glowed in the darkness, shining brighter, and brighter, causing a mirrored glow to take hold in the center of Erick’s sunform, around his personal Silver Star, his proof of his Avowed Pacifist status. Erick held onto the moment, knowing he would remember this, and Phagar’s [Death’s Approach], for the rest of his hopefully long life.

Lapis stared, mouthing, “Holy sh—”

The silver, ghostly form of Koyabez descended onto the world, shaping what was his to shape, carving and creating under the power of what belonged in his Domain, before all others.

Erick’s own Silver Star became something shinier.

Koyabez retreated, his work done.

While everyone was still staring, still flabbergasted, Erick stepped toward Lapis, fast as he could, and used his Silver Star on her. The effect was instant. Something deep pulsed inside the Star, eliciting a similar pulse inside Lapis. She turned limp and fully physical, as she began to cry out glowing tears. Erick moved her into the warm wings of the Ophiel he had already positioned next to her. She didn’t resist; she did the opposite. She reached for Ophiel, trying to find comfort in anything, trying to wrap herself in his feathers. Ophiel turned them both to light and vacated the battlefield.

Before anyone could say anything else, he appeared behind Farix. A [Grand Dispel] for 100,000 mana cast upon his blood orbs stripped those from him, but not before one of them fired an ineffectual beam at Erick, and Erick fired off a simultaneous [Harmonic Counterspell] at Farix, directly. Erick smiled, saying, “Don’t worry.”

Farix tried to get away. He failed, as a dozen [Harmonic Counterspell]s suppressed his power. Erick touched the Silver Star to the Shade’s chest. A similar pulse, same as the one that took Lapis, shocked Farix from the inside out. He fell, insensate, into an Ophiel’s waiting arms. That Ophiel took the man away, as Erick said, “You’ll survive, now.”

Fallopolis looked to him, saying, “You better not do that to me!”

“Of course not.” Erick launched a [Cascade Imaging] into the sky, targeting Queen.

Ah. She was hiding.

Erick stepped her way, uncovering her hiding spot like finding a toddler hiding in a cupboard. With a series of very effective counterspells and other magics, he sent Queen off into the arms of another Ophiel. He was glad he could rescue her, too. She may have been on Tania’s side, but she seemed like a nice enough person, and both Violet and Fallopolis had both given her ‘good’ endorsements. Maybe now she’d realize what she’d done wrong in her life.

Erick was not under any illusions about Queen, though. She was still a Shade. She was still evil. He had seen as much in the terrified eyes of her various butlers at the First Feast and otherwise. Queen, like every Shade before her, had done some dark deeds in the shadows.

He switched the map to ‘Goldie’.

She did not show, either on the map, or to Erick’s sight.

He switched the map to Tania. She was standing far to the southeast, inside a bit of land known as Weaver’s Quarters, near the Upper Reaches. Erick nodded at the location, then turned to Fallopolis.

Fallopilis stared at Erick. She frowned. “What divine cocks did you suck while I wasn’t watching?”

“With the Feast orgies canceled I had to get my fuck on somewhere, Fallopolis.”

“Ha!” Fallopolis might have laughed, but it was a hollow sound.

Erick pointed down at the Garden. “Is Treant worth saving?”

Fallopolis flicked her gaze down to the Garden. “If you save him, I doubt anyone will ever see him again except for the most devout Walkers in the Dark. He’ll set down in some grove somewhere and that will be the end of his involvement in mortal affairs. Maybe he’ll make some forest somewhere better than it had been before? I don’t know. I’m not a fortune teller.”

Erick nodded. “Then I will be saving another before we go confront Tania.”

He stepped down into the Garden, right next to a massive, dark tree with bare branches raising into the sky like lightning bolts. It was Treant, and he was surrounded by eight fruiting trees. The Stat Trees.

A series of super fast [Harmonic Counterspell]s prevented the disguised Shade’s counterattack, while Erick’s own massively empowered sunform took care of the lashing roots and blasting beams and bashing branches that poured in from the rest of the nearby Gardens, and from Treant himself. The touch of the Silver Star soaked into the Shade, ripping through what looked almost like a Domain. The fight was over.

Erick departed, while Treant shuddered. His branches slowly drooped. Erick could have called him a weeping willow, but that seemed overly harsh. The Shade surely deserved all the emotions he was currently feeling, but Erick did not feel like being cruel.

“Okay.” Erick stepped back into the sky, next to Fallopolis.

Fallopolis flinched backwards, stepping away fast as she said, “SHIT, son!” She forced herself to relax. “You’re scaring me a little.”

Buzz.

Erick smiled. “Lie.”

Fallopolis couldn’t help but grin at him. “… Maybe.” With much innuendo, she said, “There’s certainly some strong emotion happening, though.”

Not a lie.

Erick ignored the implication, and spoke to the air, “Goldie? Are you here?”

“She’s here.” Fallopolis pointed to an empty speck of sky. “Come on out. We might actually have a chance at this, thanks to whatever juice Erick has been drinking.”

Goldie appeared, like stepping out of a fog. She stared at Erick. “Got a plan?”

“I am going to lock Tania down.” He looked to Fallopolis. “Fallopolis will end her.” He looked to Goldie. “But you’re going to run away before you get your Blessing, if you can, and I don’t like that. So either lie to my face, and be forced to accept the inevitable, or take the Blessing now, without fighting back.”

Fallopolis grinned at the assassin, saying, “He’s got you there.”

For a long moment, no one said anything.

Goldie glared, but then softened. “… The gods are really doing this, huh?”

“Not only them, but Melemizargo, too.” Erick said, “And you know this already.”

“I know.” Goldie said, “I’m just being reluctant.” She closed her eyes. She said, “I don’t want to see it coming. Do it.”

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Erick did. Goldie didn’t even flinch as the Silver Star touched her soul, eliciting the growth of something deep inside of her that had been turned off or ignored for a long time. As she collapsed in on herself, wrapping her arms around her knees, Erick had an Ophiel pick her up and move her away.

When they were alone, Fallopolis teased, but in a serious voice, “No Blessing for me, huh?”

“Nope.” Erick said, “Whatever you did a hundred years ago was pretty shitty. From my understanding you brought about the Great Purge of Spur. But since then, you’ve been helping a lot more than you’ve been harming.” He looked to her. “How did that all happen?”

Fallopolis looked away. “… It was a stupid thing I did, working us all into a frenzy to go against Spur.” She looked to Erick. “The story is stupid, when I look back on it. I worked to get Silverite called ‘Untouchable’ by the Clergy, which was about 400 of us at the time. I succeeded. Silverite got a big head and came into Kendrithyst, looking to end us all, exactly as I knew she would. Then I sprung the trap… I got a little overzealous, along with the rest of my people. Like idiots, we scoured Spur from the Crystal Forest. We never should have done that. I never should have done that.”

Erick nodded. “Why not?”

Fallopolis sighed. “Now you ask the tough one, huh.” She told the truth, “It’s not because I particularly cared about the people there. Not until they were gone. The destruction of Spur caused an event I never would have wanted, if I had known the future. It caused the rise of Kal’Duresh and Frontier, creating a brand new front of the Quiet War, that, of course, spilled into here.” Her voice took on an angry tone. “Into Kendrithyst! This once-great cosmopolitan City of the Shades became a mere reflection of the Quiet War, and then fell into even more degradation over the last century as people like Tania came into power.

“The Great Purge was a travesty on a thousand levels that I never forgave myself for allowing to happen, or for enabling. I miscalculated everything, from beginning to end, because of some misguided idea that Silverite had ties to the rest of wrought society and that by getting her, I would get the people that took my mother.” She said, “That was wrong of me, too. Silverite has always been a nobody in the Underworld.” Fallopolis laughed. “Killzone used to be a prince, though. Using him never got me anywhere, either, so that’s why I moved onto Silverite, thinking she had deep connections.” She looked to Erick. “Did you know that? About Killzone?”

“No…” Erick thought about the blacklight he had given the man; about his stunned silent reaction to the ultraviolet-glowing stone, and the brilliant purple reaction of his wrought body. Later information at that same party revealed that blacklights were used by royalty. Neither Silverite or Anhelia had the same sort of reaction as Killzone, so Killzone being a prince, and thus connected to the lights that were used as the gems of royalty, explained that discrepancy. “But that makes some sense, now that you’ve said that.”

“Too bad [Future Sight] isn’t as useful as Rear-sight, eh?” Fallopolis smirked at her own joke, then said, “You know? I killed practically every single new Shade to be born since then, trying to stomp out further expansions of the Quiet War. I wasn’t always the Culler, but that’s how I became the Culler. I had to do it, too. Every single one of them new youngling Shades would have added to the Quiet War on one side or the other. I’ve been fighting Tania ever since she was made Champion, in those stupid years after Spur’s Great Purge.” She flipped a hand through the air, toward where Bulgan died. “That Bulgan was the only one I couldn’t kill. Tania protected him too well.”

Erick nodded, taking that all in. Then he asked, “What are your thoughts on Tania?”

“You’re not going to try and save her, too, are you?” Fallopolis side-eyed Erick.

“No.” Erick said, “I cannot allow the Champion of Melemizargo to live. I have absolutely no doubt that she could break any Blessing I put upon her, so she has to die.”

“I like this side of you, Erick.” Fallopolis happily said, “If we make it out alive, I’ll show you the good time you were missing this Shadow’s Feast.”

Erick smirked. “When I’m done here, I’m probably going to go home and cry a lot. If we survive.”

“… Not a lie.” Fallopolis frowned. “That part of you is less attractive.”

Erick ignored the dig, and asked, “Tania is a Copy Mage, isn’t she?”

Fallopolis’s bright eyes went wide. “The number of living people who know that is now a total of two. You and me.”

“Just two? Not even Quilatalap?”

“… Ah.” Fallopolis said, “He might have known. I’m not sure he’s alive. Er. Dead. Undead. Whatever.”

Not a lie. Ahhh… Shit. Erick’s emotions took a funny, hateful roll through his sunform. “Fuck.” He asked, “Who did it?”