250, 1/2

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

But he tried anyway.

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

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

Erick hoped that wouldn’t happen today.

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

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

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

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

… He was lying.

Okay.

Well.

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

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

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

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

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

… Oh.

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

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

… Okay. So. Duh.

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

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

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

Ah.

That made more sense.

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

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

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

So it took time to kill…

Oh.

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

Hmm.

It wasn’t a truly clear thought, though.

Time to clear up some misconceptions.

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

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

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

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

The Red Sparks did not advance.

Erick was glad for that.

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

A lightbulb went off.

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

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

A lightbulb went off for Solomon, too.

And still, the Red Sparks did not advance.

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

“What about mana from side realities?”

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

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

Okay.

Erick had reached the edge of understanding.

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

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

Anyway!

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

Could a Creation Wizard become a ‘Big Bang?’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And that was how Erick was going to win.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was right there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– – – –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Erick waited.

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

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

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

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

Melemizargo rolled his eyes. He said nothing.

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

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

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

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

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

“ANYWAY!

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

“Anyway.

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

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

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

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“And Benevolence is helping now, too!

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

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

Erick paused.

Melemizargo was focused hard on him.

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