272, 1/2

 

Erick woke as he usually did; all at once, and with his senses unfurling across everyone and everything.

Quilatalap lay on the other side of the bed, the two of them sharing in the small warmth of each other on the rare occasion that both of them wanted to actually sleep. Other activities were more common. As Erick woke, Quilatalap woke up, too. The big guy smiled, showing off his big lower fangs, as he breathed deep and rolled over to Erick.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

Quilatalap grinned more. And then he came in for a small kiss, and the two of them got up.

“What’s your plan for the day?” Erick asked, as he put on some glowthread robes. “I’m expecting more big meetings.”

Quilatalap dressed in his own clothes, which were not glowthread. Erick had wanted to give him some, but he wanted to make his own. He already had some glowthread spiders growing in ten different dungeons, and also in the Grand Benevolence Dungeon of Candlepoint. He had started to keep some real clothes here, though, in the cloud castle, now that the Red was removed from Veird and he could live outside of the dungeons.

The Red had tried to Erase him several times already.

As if Erick needed another reason to kill Nothanganathor.

Quilatalap said, “Still working on that reson-training dungeon.”

Erick chuckled. “I’m surprised you had any success at all.”

“The Dark isn’t the Fractal, that’s for sure.” Quilatalap said, “I managed to make the dungeon able to see my own resons, though.”

Erick paused. “Really?! That’s amazing!”

Quilatalap smirked, and allowed himself a blush. “I had to move a phylactery there, but I’ve started cultivating resons now.”

That was big news.

Erick grabbed Quilatalap in for a hug, holding him tight, saying, “Congrats!”

Quilatalap laughed a little as he hugged back. “This old lich can learn a few new tricks now and then.”

Erick waggled his eyebrows. “This calls for a celebration.”

Breakfast wasn’t happening for hours, anyway.

Erick put up a little [Hasted Shelter] to give them a bit more time.

– – – –

Erick entered the dining room and breathed in the scent of cinnamon pancakes. He smiled, and said, “I love those pancakes, Teressa.”

Teressa smiled as she set down a massive tray of cinnamon-swirl pancakes, her silver [Bracelet of Memory and History] glinting on her wrist, as she said, “I can’t believe I forgot about them. Dariok loves them too.”

A faint silver outline and an empty voice sat upon a chair to the side, next to Teressa’s seat. So far the only one who could see Dariok fully was Teressa, but she certainly saw him. Erick was pretty sure he saw some sort of smile upon Dariok’s ghost, though, at the attention that Teressa gave him.

Lenitha had taken to pretending that her father was alive and well, too, just as easily as Teressa had. She bounced in her chair next to the faint glow of Dariok, saying, “I love them more! Can I have ten?!”

“Soon as everyone else shows up, Lenitha,” Teressa said, as she sat down. “Can you help with the sausage, Erick? We sort of ran out.”

Erick easily copied the sausage patties on the table—

Poi and Rizala entered the room together, mind tendrils wrapped up in each other as they spoke of whatever. Poi joined the physical conversation, too, saying, “I’ll go to the store later.”

Variol, Rizala’s incani husband, walked in right behind them, saying, “I got that, Poi.”

“That works, too,” Poi said.

Rizala looked around… And then she ducked down, to look under the table. “Kenni, honey. You gotta eat at the table, sweetheart. Come sit in your chair.”

Kenni was a little older than Lenitha, but he was a dragonkin born of dragonkin and incani parents, so he was kinda really small compared to everyone else. He was whip smart, though. He said, “I am fine here, mother. I am playing monsters with Ophiel and this is the safe space.”

Erick smiled at that. He opened a tiny portal to Benevolence, only letting his voice through the opening, as he said, “Ophiel. It’s breakfast time. You can play later.”

Ophiel popped out of a different portal, saying, “Fiiiiiiiine.”

Rizala coaxed Kenni out from under the table, saying, “You can play later, too.”

Poi asked, “Quilatalap didn’t want breakfast?”

“Nope,” Erick said, “Too busy with the reson dungeons, though I am glad he decided to spend the night. I’m amazed that he’s making progress with resons at all, but if anyone can get that working, he can.”

Kenni said, “Quilatalap is a hermit.”

Erick laughed. “Yeah. He is.” He looked around. And then he opened a tiny portal to Yggdrasil at the lake, and said, “Breakfast.”

Yggdrasil’s avatar popped out of a portal. “No girls and boy?”

Erick smiled softly at that. “The more things change, the more they stay the same; the girls and boy are all doing their own things. I think Jane is with Sitnakov right now.”

Ophiel almost said something, blurting it out, but he stopped with his mouth open. He reconsidered. Erick looked at him a little bit. Ophiel pulled back.

“… Let’s eat!” Erick said, deciding to leave Ophiel’s trouble alone.

Teressa chuckled as she started dishing out breakfast, setting the very best swirled pancake in front of Dariok’s silver outline first, before moving on. Everyone helped themselves to the other stuff, as they wanted. It was delicious. Small conversations soon started about this and that—

“Evan is with Zorik!” Ophiel blurted out.

Erick froze, the bit of pancake on his fork dripping onto his shirt. He set down his fork and cleaned himself off, asking, “Evan is dating Zolan’s grandson? The paladin of Rozeta?”

Ophiel rapidly added, “Great grandson!”

Yggdrasil eyed Ophiel, then said, “It started 8 months ago, shortly after you came back. They’ve been circling each other at the House for a while now, but they went for it.”

Erick was kinda miffed to learn that his kids were in relationships without them telling him about it, but he moved on, saying, “Good for them.” He asked, “What’s everyone else up to, today?”

Teressa said, “Dariok and I are taking Lenitha to the movies.”

Lenitha almost leapt out of her chair. “WE’RE REALLY GOING?!”

Teressa nodded, beginning to say something—

But Kenni blurted, “I want to go too!” He looked to his mom. “Mom?!”

Rizala’s eyes went a little wide with a little worry, and then she put on a smile and said, “We’ll look into it, honey.”

Erick smiled to see the drama play out in front of him.

Breakfast was nice.

As for the drama of Erick’s own kids, Jane hadn’t spoken about it, but she was getting pretty serious with Sitnakov, from what Erick had heard; none of which he heard from Jane, herself.

Oh well.

– – – –

Erick stood upon a familiar black volcano caldera where mist flowed softly through the space. Rozeta and Phagar stood with him, but Erick wasn’t quite sure what this was about, and the mist was empty. It was just the three of them. They had called him here, but they hadn’t said much; just that they wanted to talk in an official capacity.

And so, Erick casually asked, “What’s up?”

Rozeta said, “There has been a development with the un-Sundering Project. Specifically, through a confluence of events, a person was ripped out of my Heaven.”

Phagar said, “And a day before that, Solomon brought back a person who had chosen the End.”

Oh.

Well.

… Hmm.

So that was a problem of a difficult nature.

When people died, a lot of different things could happen.

Most normally, when a person died, they usually went to a god of their choice, unless something happened along the way. Then, after a long time in that heaven, that person either remained themselves, becoming a paragon of themselves in that afterlife, or they chose to simply become one with that heaven; that specific god’s domain. It was like becoming a part of the god, but more like becoming a part of that mantle of godhood. The difference between being a part of the god’s domain or mantle was academic and religious, but probably more philosophical than anything. Becoming a paragon left a person as themselves, of course.

In the vast majority of other cases, where a person just didn’t care about an afterlife, or if they had no plans for after death, they went to Phagar, who shepherded them on to the afterlife of their choice, to see if they fit in with that afterlife, or they offered the person The End; a soft oblivion of eternal rest. Dead babies and children too young to understand anything usually ended up shepherded to Atunir’s heaven, to be reborn to parents wishing most solidly for kids, though that was mostly a ‘the same things used to make two different people’ sort of situation. It was not a [Reincarnation].

Phagar’s The End was a definite End, though, with the people who chose that End likely being those who had vehemently chosen the End. Phagar did not offer the End lightly, but it was always there, calling people to their ultimate rest.

Everyone had suspected that Solomon’s Un-Sundering Project was capable of undoing The End, and they knew it was going to be an issue, eventually…

And now that issue was here.

Erick took a moment, then said, “So he really can undo The End. That was kinda expected, eventually.”

“And now we are at ‘eventually’,” Phagar said, “I don’t mind immortality, but I am against pain, and the End is chosen by people who have chosen that for themselves. The person who chose the End was brought back by a great granddaughter who thought she was doing good, but the Ended person instantly chose the End again.”

Erick sighed. “So that’s bad.”

“Forcibly pulling someone out of heaven is not ideal either,” Rozeta said.

Erick said, “Pulling someone out of Heaven is… not ideal, either.” Erick paused in thought… And then he looked around. He looked back to Rozeta and Phagar. “Why are we here?”

Rozeta said, “Technically, what he has done is a blasphemy of the highest order, but we have bigger problems… Technically. And Solomon has already proven himself as an ally. If anyone else would have desecrated the afterlives of our people, then the Paladins would get involved.”

“Understood.” Erick said, “So let’s solve this problem.”

Rozeta nodded, her worries vanishing slightly, now that Erick had agreed to do something.

“Thank you, Erick.” Phagar said, “We want you to talk to him, and incorporate some sort of prayer into the working of his next iteration of this magic. A clearance-request, if you want to frame it that way.”

“… Sure?” Erick said, “I see no problem with that.”

… But if that was everything, then they wouldn’t be here, in this ritual space.

Erick asked, “But there’s a lot more?”

Rozeta said, “Sitnakov Ignited to Wizardry this morning, and we need you to talk to both him and Killzone before they kill each other.”

Erick’s eyes went wide—

Phagar said, “Ideally, if you work this confrontation right, then it is possible for both of them to Ascend to True Wizard at the end of it.”

“Which is what we will be hoping for,” Rozeta said, “Because I’ll pull the Script back from that spot and let whatever happens, happen.”

Erick focused. “That’s a lot. Now I actually do need to know what is going on with that relationship.”

Rozeta said, “We’re not done yet.”

“Today is a big day, Erick.” Phagar said, “Because we’re also thinking of asking Melemizargo to raise Solomon to God of Knowledge. It would solve a great many issues coming up with the Un-Sundering Project, and provide a better framework for all of that happening. He wouldn’t need to have prayer systems set up, and he could just act as the prayer system himself.”

Rozeta said, “With such a power, he could actually get Debby back and solidify his spellwork into a True Working of Divinity, as well as provide Veird with a God of Knowledge that would be able to directly fight against the Red’s anti-memetic effects.”

Erick’s brain broke a little.

And then he said, “Ah. Yes. This is a big day, I see.”

“Big day. Potential to be a catastrophic day. Lots of moving parts, and we’re only at the initial blush of the solutions to our burgeoning problems.” Rozeta said, “But we believe it might be a very good day. You might need to do a lot of Time Magic to get it all falling down in the correct ways, but maybe not.”

Phagar said, “It’s all connected. None of them know this is happening. But we’re here, because we’re hoping that Melemizargo will choose to show, and lend a hand. Depending on how he reacts, we will have to react accordingly.”

Erick looked around. “… Melemizargo?”

Shadows swirled.

Melemizargo halfway appeared out of the gloom, only really showing the whites of his eyes, as he said, “You would need to release the dead Goddess to me.”

Rozeta looked to her father.

A moment passed; eternal and deep.

Rozeta spoke with a voice that sounded almost like that of a lost daughter, asking her demented parent, “Are you really there, father? Are you really the Dark God that I grew up knowing?”

Melemizargo materialized more. “No. I am not.”

For the first time that Erick had ever seen the two of them together, Rozeta seemed both crushed, and actually hopeful.

“I am diminished, just like all that remains of the Painted Cosmology. I am barely myself on some days, daughter of mine. But I am still enough of a god to see this through, and to act as I should, especially for events as large as this. The only real question is if you truly believe Solomon is worthy of Godhood. He is, after all, born of me.”

Rozeta looked soft for a moment, like she wanted to believe, and so, when she spoke her request was deeper than her words, “He can’t have the Script, and yet he will try for that. Ask him not to take it from me.”

“He won’t try for the Script, Rozeta, because my goal in taking the remains of the Goddess is not to hurt you, or to damage what we already have. I would take the remains of the Goddess of Knowledge and make a Mantle of Wisdom for Solomon, to make him a demigod of you, for I would rather grant you the full power of Knowledge that I did not grant you at the beginning of our voyage in this Fractal Cosmology. I would enhance your Mantle of Ordered Knowledge into the Mantle of True Knowledge.” Melemizargo added, “But if you do not want this, then I will attempt to resurrect the Erased Goddess. All Solomon needs is to be a demigod, and that is easily achieved.”

Rozeta breathed deep. She closed her eyes.

No one spoke.

Rozeta opened her eyes—

The entire black land of the volcano’s caldera turned from cooled, black obsidian, to rippled, almost-invisible glass. Erick stood upon that glass, looking down at the remains of a body that was not a body at all. It was missing too much to be called anything other than a collection of parts. What remained of the Goddess of Knowledge was broken crystal at every edge, almost colorless, all affixed in the general shape of a person laying on their back, with their hands at their sides. It was also easily half a kilometer large.

What remained of the Goddess of Knowledge was a finger, a foot, a pelvis, half a head which was mostly just the right eye. The torso, right shoulder, and left leg were the most intact; they were connected to each other, except for a break at the spine, just above the pelvis. Long, white hair lay draped under the remains, originating at what had been the head and then vanishing off into the mists far to the edges of the caldera. Erick imagined that the Goddess’s hair was the mist.

The Goddess of Knowledge’s right eye was open.

The depths of that dead eye glittered gold, even now, 1453 years after the Goddess’s sacrifice.

Rozeta spoke, “I accept the Mantle of Knowledge.”

Darkness flashed.

The Goddess below began to crumble, her body turning into motes of power that evaporated under the glass. She closed her eye. Though she had no mouth, Erick felt she was finally at peace, and that everything that had come before had been a torture—

Rozeta breathed deep, and the world flowed into her. Her white wrought human body gained something deep in that breath and she gained a few inches of height, as well. Her white pantsuit turned into something ever so slightly more elegant—

It was over.

That was it.

The Goddess of Knowledge was dead, and the Goddess of Knowledge lived again.

Rozeta breathed out. Rozeta’s eyes glittered gold; her right eye perhaps a bit more than her left. Rozeta blinked, and the discrepancy of gold glows vanished, both her eyes flickering brilliant before she blinked again and hid her power behind mundanity. And then she reached up and undid the clasp on her hair bun, her metallic white hair falling down into a soft flow of white, all the way down to mid-back.

Melemizargo said, “Welcome to true godhood, daughter.”

Rozeta did not answer Melemizargo for a moment. And then she looked up at his face, and said, “I expected more.”

Melemizargo hummed. “Acclimation will take time but you are already making this universe easier for me to understand. I suggest you appoint a few demigods before you take the full brunt of Infinity. Solomon can be Wisdom, but you should appoint Natural Laws, Magical Laws, Governance, and The Unknown.”

Rozeta winced a little as Melemizargo spoke, her eyes darting left and right as though the knowledge growing in her head was too much. Erick felt a spike of worry, both at Rozeta’s sight, and at Melemizargo’s words. If the original story of the Sundering was even a little bit true, the original Goddess of Knowledge had been catatonic from the influx of new knowledge from this ‘New Cosmology’.

But then Rozeta breathed deep. She calmed.

And Erick reminded himself that the original Goddess of Knowledge had surely already known of the Fractal Cosmology, and all those attendant facts. There was absolutely no reason for her to go catatonic at the beginning, except because that suited Nothanganathor’s plan.

Rozeta said, “I locked down my Knowledge base to a few ten-thousand side-realities. I’ll be appointing those demigods later to further solve the problem.”

… Oh. Perhaps the influx of knowledge actually did send the original Knowledge into a coma.

Rozeta said, “I did think it would be worse than this.”

Melemizargo raised a very large, scaled eyebrow. He looked closer. And then he pulled back, grinning. “Good work, daughter. I knew you could do it.”

“You didn’t, actually,” Rozeta said, perhaps a bit too harsh… And then she looked up at her father, and some of her earlier compassion came back. “… But maybe you did?”

“I am getting better, daughter,” Melemizargo said, smiling.

“Not to interrupt,” Erick began, “But did Nothanganathor notice this?”

“Yes yes. Work work,” Melemizargo said, fluttering away, into the shadows. “I’ll be watching.”

Rozeta said to Erick, “Yes. Nothanganathor noticed, but now I can truly solidify Veird and help several people Ascend.” She turned to Erick. “Will you please go and speak to Sitnakov and Killzone, now? I don’t want to weigh in too much in their personal lives; it will not be good for them. Phagar and I will work with Solomon now that this is the path we are walking.”

Phagar nodded.

“Sure. Congrats on a bigger mantle, by the way.” Erick asked, “So back to the previous question: What’s the deal between those two?”

“It would be better for you to find out from them.” Rozeta smiled. “And thank you. I… I have so much to do. I have to go now, too.” She vanished in a flicker of gold.

Erick chuckled at that.

– – – –

“I’m taking care of it, Erick. You don’t need to be here,” said King Alfonin Stratagold, standing with a few advisors on the side of the battlefield. Alfonin looked to Jane, standing near him. He said nothing, but his eyes said everything. He thought that Jane had called for him.

Jane’s eyes said everything, too, and then she actually said, “I didn’t call for you, dad.”

Erick said, “Oddly enough, I didn’t even know you two were here until I scoped out the place at the behest of another.”

Erick had stepped out of a portal onto a grassy hill on Sphere Six, The Warzone, in a spot somewhere over Nelboor, down on the Old Surface. This place was one of many battlefields that had raged between the Angels and the Demons ever since the Day of Genesis, when Solomon transformed Hell into Sphere Five and Celes into Sphere Seven. This land existed between those two ancient enemies, and it actually had two different directions of gravity because of that. Looking up, Erick saw a second continent in the mirror of this one, hanging overhead, instead of a sky. Everything between these two facing continents was lit up with an omnipresent light that flowed through the center of Sphere Six. Sphere Six was the only land like this, because both the land below and the sky above had needed a lot of water, ground, and just plain stuff, between the surface and the adamantium shells, so that people weren’t fighting directly on those shells. You couldn’t really damage adamantium at all, and especially not the adamantium that made up the Spheres, but having some extra dirt in the way of those shells helped to make things less worrisome.

Usually, this place was awash in spells and murder of all kinds, in screaming and killing and the clang of metal upon metal.

At least one thing remained constant; the sound of metal striking metal.

Killzone floated in the illuminated sky high overhead, far away. Erick estimated him at around 40 kilometers distant. He glowed with a silver presence that highlighted his black body.

Sitnakov hovered maybe 2 kilometers away from Killzone. He was surrounded by a mirage in the air; a density of air, really. Tendrils of thought connected him to Killzone, and their facial expressions were furious. This moment was a lull in the fight.

Erick wondered about all of what he was seeing, but most of his worries were about Sitnakov.

Killzone had ignited to Wizardry about a month ago, and here, right on Fated time, Sitnakov had managed the same thing.

Erick guessed, “Is Sitnakov an Air Wizard?”

Jane said, “Probably.” And then she fully committed to the fact that her father was here, and whatever she had been trying to avoid was suddenly out of her hands. “He’s been having trouble with this whole… thing. I’m sure you know.”

“I don’t know, actually. I make a point to stay out of people’s lives until it concerns the welfare of the many, or other similar situations.” Erick said, “And they’re communicating telepathically over there, so I can’t hear them, either.”

Jane paused. “… You don’t know?”

“Why is that surprising, Jane? I didn’t know the two of you were dating, either.” Erick said, “Found out about Evan and Zorik earlier today, too, but only because Ophiel simply had to tell me.”

Jane wasn’t sure what to make of that.

Alfonin Stratagold rapidly explained, “Killzone used to be a Heavy of Titanite, and his former shape used to be human, like all of the other adamantium nobility of Titanite. There’s a lot of them over there, so Killzone wasn’t high up at all. He was low nobility. His former name is Kosomov. He used to travel with Sitnakov and kill monsters together. Did that for a few hundred years.

“Kosomov and my boy, the Third Prince Chernom, fell in love, and Killzone was to be adopted into the family, by marriage. And then Melemizargo attacked before the ceremony, took Chernom, sundered him, then shoved Chernom’s dead body at Kosomov, causing a melding.

“Both of the boys have blamed themselves and each other to varying degrees ever since. Kosomov went on to become Killzone, and went on to Ar’Kendrithyst to die in battle, but that never happened, and Silverite managed to make him into a General.” Stratagold shuddered as he finished. “And that is something I hoped to leave in the past forever, but events conspire.”

Jane sighed a little.

Jane had known most of that, but not everything. From the looks on Alfonin’s advisors, hanging back, they all wanted to pretend that they hadn’t heard anything at all.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

But Erick wasn’t going to pretend. Suddenly, a lot of things made sense. In an offhanded way, Erick also realized why the Geodes of Titanite and Stratagold have always had a rivalry/hatred going for each other, or they’d had a rivalry for around 350 years, which lined up nicely with Killzone’s arrival in Spur. Back when Erick had been scoping out places to put a planting of Yggdrasil, some of that rivalry had shown up.

A ‘melding’ was a thing that Erick had heard about maybe once or twice in his whole life, because it, like most things to do with the wrought, were simply not spoken of outside of the Geodes. Erick now knew why Killzone had his orcol-shape; the human-shaped Kosomov had been dying and Chernom’s body was there, and Melemizargo threw them together and Kosomov had taken in that adamantium to heal himself, resulting in the adoption of Chernom’s body-shape, because Chernom would have had a lot of adamantium to his body. The Third Prince would have provided the majority of the metal necessary to heal whatever wounds Kosomov had suffered in Melemizargo’s attack.

Also, the mental anguish of having your fiance murdered and all the political fallout and all of everything else that would have happened —and losing Sitnakov as a friend, too— would have probably caused a Change in Kosomov, causing him to fully adopt a different bodily form. Erick had seen that in the Daydropper incident, when that one wrought had been melting and reforming, turning into someone else as he gave an account of what had happened when Odaali was attacked and everyone died around him.

Also, Silverite used to have a man-shape when she first moved into Spur and became the Mayor. She proceeded to be a male Mayor for the next 750-ish years, but then the Shades wiped out 95% of Spur, around 115 years ago, and Silverite Changed into her current, female-dragonkin shape.

Erick decided, “Okay! Good to know. Thank you for the information. Now.” He opened a portal back to Stratagold’s Gate District, but he kept the sound and sight of this space invisible from that other end, where people walked around moving giant shipments through the Gates. “This has officially become Wizard business, and I aim to help both of them. Please leave the area. All of you.”

Alfonin stared hard at Erick, but his voice was harder. “They’re both idiots, but they’re good boys.”

“And if they can pull through this, they’re going to be the front line of the war.”

Alfonin nodded solemnly, resignation in his gaze. His advisors held more worried expressions.

The wrought left.

Jane stuck around for a moment longer to say, “Sitnakov doesn’t hate Killzone, but it will appear that way.”

“This fight has been coming for a long time; I understand that.” Erick tried not to be desperate as he said, “Please leave, Jane.”

Jane spared one last glance toward the sky, where Killzone and Sitnakov hung across from each other, like two black orcols, one rimmed in silver and the other surrounded by flickering winds. They were moments away from starting a Wizard war. Thankfully, Jane left through the portal, to the Gate District, where the people already there were dealing with the sudden, unexpected appearance of their king.

Erick shut the portal.

Erick breathed out in partial relief.

Confident that they were at least partially alone, Erick took to the sky and began floating forward.

The first thing to do was analyze what was happening.

Killzone was not alone. There was also a platinum version of himself standing in the air beside himself. It was Chernom’s ghost.

In contrast to the stoic, silent Killzone and Sitnakov, the silver ghost was saying things and gesticulating at Killzone and Sitnakov. It was also silent, of course; all [Silver Heart]-derived people were silent, until they actually found their voice. Once they did that those people came back to life rather fast. Right now, the only ones able to hear the person that Erick decided to call ‘Chernom’ were Killzone, and through Killzone, Sitnakov. Maybe.

There were [Telepathy] lines everywhere.

Sitnakov was surrounded by more than just cutting wind. He had a presence that was altogether solid. Like he was a bared blade. Sitnakov’s usual twinned swords floated in the air beside him, ready to be grabbed when he desired. They radiated danger, too.

The two men were 2 kilometers from each other. Chernom’s ghost was right beside Killzone, trying to convince him of something, but Killzone only had rage in his eyes for Sitnakov. Erick stopped maybe 500 meters off-center of their stare down. Neither of the guys looked at him. They were too focused on whatever [Telepathy] they were sending to each other.

Erick spoke up, “What a fine day it is to get out some aggression!”

The guys glanced his way.

Erick rhetorically asked, “Why not fight and get it over with?”

Sitnakov said, “Stay out of this.”

“I am staying out of it.” Erick felt his Lightning Path connect, as he said, “I’m just gonna watch and make sure the world’s two newest Wizards don’t obliterate the world when they finally fight, like they’ve been wanting to for a very long time. You both used to be good friends, right? Knowing both of you, I imagine you talk best with your fists. So get on with it. I’m here to ensure nothing truly bad happens.”

The world stood still.