225, 1/2

Melemizargo floated in the water that was also air, amidst false suns that dotted the oceanic sky overhead, all the way to the top of this dungeon space. His wings and body were a shadowy expanse, creating a true abyss all around this level of the dungeon and everywhere below, while his eyes mirrored the bright spots of light up above. He smiled, and his fangs glowed white, as he said, “But first, let us take care of this little ritual you did for me. I am quite thankful for that, but more so for the notice that you’re back. Now that was truly kind of you.”

Erick stood in the roofless core room of dungeon six, directly in front of Melemizargo, like an ant standing before a man. Quilatalap stood at Erick’s side, wearing his ‘Vanya Silver’ [Polymorph] form, holding in his hands a rapidly-developing dungeon slime that would become the master of this place. That slime burbled as it was still developing and had no idea what it was right now, but Quilatalap was in complete, calm awe of this event happening in front of him. He was also a little weirded out, but only due to the words that had come out of Melemizargo’s mouth.

Erick was weirded out, too. They’d get to the discussion about how he had ‘fucked up an [Onward] and missed 11 years of his life’ soon enough. For now, Erick said, “Yes. This ritual.” He asked Quilatalap, “Anything in particular you want?”

Quilatalap’s eyes went wide as he stared at Erick in complete disbelief—

“Ah! You must have skipped over this: I can’t give out boons without regard to the Pantheon’s protocols, and I certainly can’t give out requested boons anymore. At least for a while. Every boon I give is logged with the Relevant Entities and is used to judge my sanity and cooperation ever since that Anarchy Wizard debacle… But enough about that embarrassment! Let me see here…”

Erick did remember that, but he didn’t feel like arguing with Melemizargo about anything at this moment in time.

Melemizargo gazed down at Quilatalap and the core, then he glanced around, his massive head swinging around in the airy water, spilling swirls of darkness as he moved. And then he turned back to Quilatalap. “How about a half million mana core to start, and I’ll link up the other cores in the area to this one— Ah. No.” He glanced to the air. “A notification that that is too much, and that Sininindi demands I do nothing at all, but that’s not going to happen. So this is what I’m going to do: I’ll make the core a 250,000 mana core, and you’ll have to link the Grand Dungeon together on your own, which you were already going to accomplish through a series of dungeon wars, if I envision that correctly. How were you planning on doing that? What’s your plan after this hostile takeover?”

Quilatalap calmly said, “If further violence proves to be necessary, and if I receive no help at all, then I will seal the dungeons from delvers and create undead which will gradually grow the mana capabilities of this dungeon. From there, I will have them flood out into the overworld on missions to capture the other nearby dungeons. If the response from Storm’s Edge is hyper-violence, calling in resources beyond their own, then I will have to flee, but if they give anything less than that, then I will be in control of the seven dungeons of this Pit in 2 months at the earliest, and 6 months at the latest. From there, it would be a year before I would open the dungeons to delvers.” He continued, “If violence is not necessary in order to get my way, then with the cooperation of Storm’s Edge, and after a week of remaking, the dungeons will open to allow delvers to continue delving. The first floor of the Water Dungeon and all the other Elemental dungeons will take me a week. In a month, the False Society will be active. In 6 months, the whole place should look rather presentable to any sort of inspection, from anyone, and this whole place will be back on track for proper growth.”

Melemizargo nodded. “Let’s bump that dungeon core starting bonus up to 350,000 mana.”

Darkness swirled into the dungeon core, then soaked into the inner facets of the smooth crystal. And then it grew. Three seconds. That was all it took for the core to triple in size, growing from the size of a human head, to the size of a human curled up in a fetal position. It pulsed with power, and the entire dungeon suddenly seemed more real in some unknowable way. It was a sensation akin to only knowing that there had been a buzzing sound all around after that buzzing sound went away.

Erick had felt that sensation before, in other dungeons, but it was always odd to feel when reality stabilized around oneself. Quilatalap’s dungeons were still far and away more stable than this place, but with Melemizargo’s empowerment, this dungeon was a lot better than what it had been.

Quilatalap dropped to one knee and bowed, saying, “Thank you.”

The Vanya-slime had enough wherewithal to bow with Quilatalap, though Erick might have been anthropomorphizing the little slime too early, for it flopped about quite erratically.

“My pleasure!” Melemizaro looked to Erick. “Let us take that talk now.”

Erick rapidly said, “I needed to speak to you about what comes after Yggdrasil’s release, too. We’re still not opening new worlds for 90 years, at least, to give everyone ample time to prepare.”

“Sure sure sure.” Melemizargo waved a wing, like half of the black world rising and then falling in the airy water, leaving behind a vast portal, large enough for the God of Magic to float through unimpeded. On the other side lay a mountain city vista and a blue sky, overlooking wild jungles as far as the eye could see. Melemizargo moved through the portal, taking all the shadows with him, saying, “Come on then!”

Erick rapidly asked Quilatalap, “Are you—”

“Are you fucking crazy— go through that portal now. I’ll be fine with this core! Love you.”

Erick smiled. “Love you too. I’ll be back soon.”

And then he centered himself, and followed Melemizargo to lands unknown.

– – – –

“Oh,” Erick said, looking down as he hovered in the sky. This wasn’t ‘lands unknown’. “This is Mount Ascendant.”

As the gargantuan portal winked shut behind him, Erick found himself in the air over the mountain that Melemizargo had claimed for his purposes years ago, over on Dungeon Island; the largest of the three major islands located southwest of the main continent of Glaquin. Most people called this place Mount Ascendant, though it had other names. ‘The New Ar’Kendrithyst’ was one of them, though that was a misnomer, and most people only called it that jokingly.

The mountain was one of those impossibly tall mountains that could only ever exist on Veird, where gravity was a suggestion, and not the rule. Recently, it had been a single, whole mountain, but then Melemizargo had split that mountain in twain with his own impossible forces. He had cracked the mountain from north west to the east, and then lifted up the southern piece, the larger ‘half’ of the mountain, by a few extra kilometers. Tens of dungeons lay within that dark crevasse, between the north and south parts of the mountain.

It sort of reminded Erick of a cake he had baked one time, that had cracked mostly across the middle.

The lower, northern part of the city, was a gently curving expanse of cultivated gardens that looked, to the untrained eye, like wild spaces; like an extension of the jungles of Quintlan all around the base of the mountain. This place held no wild oozes, though. This place was a rather nice location for anyone searching for any powerful or useful herbs, flowers, mushrooms, trees, and all other manner of forest flora. It was also home to several special dungeons filled with special fauna, located beyond black arches, half-hidden here and there. A lot of monsters that were very desirable for their Familiar Forms lived inside those special dungeons. Hunting one of those monsters was usually a Test of the Dark all on its own, but if you could get here, and if you could find those hidden dungeon entrances, then you could take that test.

The upper, southern half of the mountain was where civilization grew.

All over the cliffside, and then for a 20-ish kilometer-sized spread down the southern slope of the mountain, lay a ‘Dead City’, festooned with magnificent, airy architecture, with domes and spires and sky bridges and crystal towers, all growing tall upon the ridge, and everywhere else. It was almost completely uninhabited, though, except by the people who oversaw the six major Grand Dungeons located within the city, and within the crevasse down below. But you couldn’t just walk into that city, and go to those Grand Dungeons. That city itself was a test, for before anyone could challenge the dungeons therein and claim some truly grand prizes, they had to first evade and also kill the sentinels of that city, gathering keys to allow them passage past the absolute defenses located just in front of the dungeons themselves. If the tester lost those ‘hunter versus hunter’ battles then the sentinels would not kill the tester; they’d take an arm or a leg, and set down some curses inside those broken limbs that prevented restoration for a few days.

Erick glanced downward, and saw those sentinels floating around the city, far below. They resembled elementals made of white crystal, gold and silver, and flowing black magic. Some of those creatures looked up at him, up there in the sky. Some of those sentinels were even positioned by massive anti-castle cannons, waiting to shoot him down.

If it weren’t for Melemizargo flying down across the sky, his wings spread wide billowing, those sentinels would have shot Erick down already. But the God of Magic was here, guiding Erick into his new city, leading the way to a massive circular platform located in the top center of the city.

Erick followed, as an obvious guest.

Erick had been here a few times already and he had lots to do back at Storm’s Edge, so he didn’t want to spend too much time here, but he did need some answers.

He hadn’t really [Onward]ed himself through eleven years, did he?

Erick had a hard time believing that, and yet, Melemizargo would not lie, and he was rather sane these days.

So Erick checked on the blue boxes of the pair of magics he had made together, eleven years ago. The first was [Return].

He used that thing perhaps more than he should, and a lot more recently than he had in a long time. Erick could do that spell even inside a dungeon, manually casting it, because he had needed to learn how to do that in order to save everyone more than once. There was the Anarchy Wizard, and then there was the Blue Wizard, and then there were all the assassinations over those early years. And those assassinations weren’t just against him, either. It used to be, every so often some person from House Benevolence would be assassinated out in the field, too, and Erick would reverse time if he could and then go save that person.

He hadn’t gotten a call to do that in a few years, though. If times were still like that, then he never would have gone on sabbatical; he never would have entertained the idea of releasing Yggdrasil from his soul early.

Erick knew how to cast [Return].

It was the other spell, the one that he almost never used, which Melemizargo claimed that Erick had cast wrong.

Perhaps… He had?

The spell looked normal.

Whatever.

Erick would find out about all that soon enough. First thing was first, though. He recast his [Unbreakable Form]. And then he flew forward. As Erick descended upon the city, flying on Benevolent lightning, he gradually suspected that no one would be up ahead except for Melemizargo; this would be a private meeting.

Melemizargo’s Throne was a 1,500-meter-wide white stone dais, and more technically, a smaller dais set upon the larger one, on the northern side, right against the edge of the cliff. If he wanted, he could stretch his head over the edge and look right down into the dark crack in the world below.

Melemizargo actually held ‘court’ from his position on that smaller dais sometimes, while everyone else stood, or rested, on the larger space, here in the heart of Ascendant city, among clear-crystal spires filled with shadows. The white stone was actually white crystal. The whole place, but mostly the clear crystal spires, reminded Erick of the clear crystals of Brightwater and of the Spire of the Shades back at Ar’Kendrithyst, back before the place had been broken, first from the events of Last Shadow’s Feast, and then finally and completely due to the events surrounding the Soul Slime. It wasn’t till a few years ago that Queen Anhelia had propped that Spire back into the sky and restored a lot of the white and clear crystal spires back into position, and turned that place into a living space. Erick had visited Ar’Kendrithyst for the opening ceremony of that reclaimed land, but he had not visited recently.

As Erick set down onto the white crystal dais, he thought about how he hadn’t visited this place in a long time, either. Had it been years already? Yes, it had been years.

Melemizargo settled down onto his own private dais upon the dais, and a convenient cloud moved gently in the air above to drown the place in shadows. He smiled in the deepening darkness of a bright day, and said, “Fallopolis is going to host this year’s Shadow’s Feast, and I have decided it will be here, at Ascendant Mountain. Will you be able to attend in a month?”

“I can try. I was planning on getting through the various requests I’ve made on behalf of Yggdrasil before truly relaxing. I would attempt to keep the promise I made to my son before I made a new one to you.”

Melemizargo smiled a little. “Good. I wasn’t ready for you to be back already, anyway; Fallopolis can keep her current venue and you do not have to attend. I wasn’t ready for you to be here right now, either, or else I would have provided some snacks and entertainment. Next year will be a much better festival. Hopefully when that seal is removed we’ll still have a next year, yes?”

Erick gave a nervous laugh. “I hope so, too.”

Melemizargo nodded. “I won’t keep you overlong for I know you’re busy doing whatever, which is normal for mortals at your age and at your position of power— But before you get back to all that!” Melemizargo leaned in. “We’re going to ensure that you know what you did wrong with that [Onward], and then you’re never going to do that again.”

Ah.

Melemizargo missed him.

Well, Erick had grown somewhat friendly with Melemizargo, too, over the years. There had been a lot less accidental murder or catastrophe when talking to the God of Magic these days, so he was easy to get along with, even though he was usually several buildings bigger than everyone else in the area. Which was fine, though somewhat awkward for most people not used to it.

But there were a few things Erick wasn’t sure about right now, that made all this rather questionable.

“Why do you think I went [Onward] for eleven years?”

Melemizargo eyed Erick, and lowered his head closer to the ground. “I am not insane, Erick. I know what I see.” He raised back up. “Never before on this lifeboat of a planet— I know what I saw, and I saw you, a few months after—” He paused. He said, “Tell me of the day you made [Onward] and the methodology you used.”

“… It was two months into the new year, after the Dungeon Exodus and the Teleport Exodus, and I wanted to get through some rather boring meetings with awful people faster than I was able to do so on my own, and I was facing down two solid months of Gate creation. So I took a break and worked on both [Return] and [Onward], the first to avoid the bad ends in those future meetings and all other future meetings, and the [Onward] to sort of ‘turn my mind off’ when facing months and months of routine runic creation.

“I had been toying with the functionality of both spells for a while, and while both spells are similar in creation, they are vastly different in their function. [Return] takes my conscious soul when I cast the spell and updates the me-of-however-long-ago, depending on mana spent, with the experiences of future-me, by melding my future self with my past self through my world-line. This is possible through mana’s general ability to ignore time, and, in my case, Benevolence’s easily-used Elemental-Time-adjacent properties.

“As for [Onward]…”

– – – –

Erick stood in his warehouse on Yggdrasil’s branches, staring at the job ahead of him.

He didn’t much care for what he was seeing. This was a task that needed to be done yesterday, and yet, he did not want to do this, at all.

The warehouse held a thousand thousand blocks of grey-black iron, ready to be transformed into intricate runework Gates, all while they were currently inside in the middle of a continuing, global emergency. You couldn’t just [Duplicate] a working Gate, though, or else Erick would have done that.

Runic webs required that magic be carved directly into them, and a copied gate did not copy over magic at all. There had been some experiments with [Duplicate]ing magical items long, long before Erick’s time, and Kirginatharp had all of that information with him, and he had shown Erick all of it. The long and short of it was that magic did not like to be copied, unless it copied itself, which the Propagation Ban stopped short. Shade Lapis had a suggestion, though it was one she didn’t believe Erick would take and it wasn’t one she was recommending, anyway.

Magic could be copied easily if one were to construct a living artifact to do this work. Such an artifact would include an undead arm capable of wielding a runic knife, a brain capable of doing a complex spellwork chore and not burning out from doing that chore, and senses enough to allow the arm to hold the knife and carve the runes.

Erick chose to ignore that ‘living artifact’ option.

He would have enlisted actual help, with real people, but that was a non-starter, as well. Stratagold and Tasar and Archmage’s Rest and Oceanside were all working overtime to get there, but Erick was the one with all the spellwork that went into these things. He couldn’t really offload half the job, either, because when you introduced multiple mages to a working, then you ran into the cooperative casting problem, and though [Renew] helped with that…

The tolerances for this job required that Erick do the work himself.

So instead, Erick focused on a different solution.

He had made [Return] about an hour ago, and it worked well.

Now, it was time for the other option. [Onward]; a spell framework that allowed the user to flash forward through a task, or for a set amount of time. The spell would allow Erick to get through work quickly, though time would still pass. If he did it well enough, then he could even use this magic inside a [Hasted Shelter], and that’s when [Onward] started to actually look like a good option.

Phagar had originally told Erick about both [Return] and [Onward] back at that first real lesson in Time Magic months ago, right before Erick had made [Hasted Shelter]. The God of the End and Time had told Erick that there were certain types of Time Magic that were easy, and others that were difficult, and some which were the realm of Wizards only.

Speeding up or slowing down localized time was easy enough. One just had to focus on Elemental Time in an area, and then drink deep in one way or the other; faster or slower. Elemental Time was already everywhere, after all, but by altering one’s temporal rate of flow with that Time, time would alter accordingly.

Ophiel twittered in the air near Erick, humming an odd tune of guitar-string worry.

Erick smiled, saying, “Don’t worry, Ophiel. This is just me skipping forward. I won’t be going anywhere.”

Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye bounced in a worried-sort of way. “But you won’t be here.”

“I won’t be leaving long.” Erick said, “I doubt I’ll use this magic much at all, but it’s a part of the full set of Time Magics, and I need to have it, just to have it. I might be able to use it inside a [Hasted Shelter], too; Phagar was able to [Return] me inside the Feast Barrier that one time, on the day you were born. Normally Time Magic doesn’t play exactly well with each other, but it does work fine if you can work it well.”

“How does it work?” Yggdrasil asked.

Erick had Ophiels begin to hum in Elemental Time, as Erick explained, “[Onward] takes my consciousness and sort of ‘plucks me upward’ while my body and soul and everything else continues to operate normally. I’m here, but I also become unmoored in time, and when the spell ends, I come back to myself and a certain amount of time has passed without me really experiencing it. It’s more of a loosening of the soul and allowing the world to happen as it would, and less like actually trying to affect anything in a temporal sense. [Onward] is sort of like how you can walk through town from one normal location to another normal location in a routine-sort of way, and zone out while doing so.”

Yggdrasil asked, “Like when I’m sleepy, but still awake?”

Erick smiled. “Yes. Almost exactly like that. Your body is still growing and changing and working but you’re not really there. Now imagine if your body and your mind were there, and doing something, but you were not really there at all.”

“Subconscious?”

“Something like that. It’s a lot less complicated than [Return].” Erick said, “Because of the natural direction of the arrow of causality, [Return] costs about a hundred times more mana than [Onward]. Honestly, the ‘zoning out’ that [Onward] can cause is also easily achieved with certain drugs, or what have you.

“I’ve been warned that doing the magic that way is like putting yourself into a true fugue, instead of achieving the type of [Onward] where you can still work while casting the spell. So I won’t be doing it that way.

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“A much better way to think of [Onward] is to think of it more as a ‘flow state’, in which all your goals become incredibly easy to achieve, and then suddenly they’re achieved.

“A third way to think of [Onward] is to imagine yourself at the point where you wish to end up, and then you cast the spell, and then you’re there.” Erick tuned Ophiel with his intentions as he spoke, and the little guy began to sing a happy song, and Erick felt as though a radio had come on and his favorite song was playing. He just needed to turn up the volume; he needed to actually cast the magic, and then the workday would pass him by. Before he did that, though, he said, “Please know that I’m still here, Yggdrasil, Ophiel. You can talk with me about whatever, but I do plan on doing this work right now. I’m just turning on the music and getting into the groove, okay?”

In a breezy sort of way, Yggdrasil sighed, saying, “Okay.”

And Erick turned up the volume.

A song that only he could hear played for him, and he began to move to the beat; shaping metals and carving them deep with his runic knife, time passing oh-so-quickly. One runic Gate was suddenly done, and then the next and the next; complete, complete, complete—

The music ended in a sudden record scratch.

Erick breathed deep as he came back to himself, halfway into the next Gate creation but having stopped at a good part to stop—

A blue box appeared.

“That was like, ten minutes?” Erick commented to Yggdrasil, “That wasn’t so bad, was it, Yggdrasil?”

The room darkened a fraction and then brightened back up, as Yggdrasil flickered unsure colors outside the windows. “… It worked?”

Ophiel twittered unsure guitar strings, for he was also confused. Did the magic even happen?

“Yes, it worked.” Erick showed Yggdrasil and Ophiel the blue box. Ophiel didn’t get anything out of that, not really, but Yggdrasil did. The big guy’s floating white eye nodded a little. Erick said, “Now this time, I want you to talk to me, okay? I’m still here, so talk to me about anything at all.”

“… Okay?”

Erick cast the spell again.

A minute into his next Gate, Yggdrasil asked, “Is the spell active?”

“Yes, it is, Yggdrasil.”