Ar'Kendrithyst

“Commence final doubling,” Erick said, in the control room of the [Seeds of Atunir] spellwork.

The large, white sphere of the [Spellsurge Weave] glowed brilliantly as the golden dots all around it twinkled and shimmered. Not a single one flickered Red, so Erick was able to stay here, on Veird, for the completion of this new layer of a new entrapment against Nothanganathor. The trap of Fenrir had been subverted, but this one would work because they finally had a good enough understanding about the real threats and the real scope of this war, allowing them to actually fight the war how it needed to be fought. Also, Erick was here, overcoming every shitty, major thing that Nothanganathor could throw against Plan Surround and Consume.

Tenebrae and Riivo stood at the controls hooked up to the Weaver map. Some priests and paladins of Atunir stood in prayer at the candles and the altars and incense. Screens and numbers floated on the wall. The numbers counted down.

A chime rang through the entire Northern Spellsurge Mountains.

In other rooms, and even nearby, priests started really getting into their sermons. 15 different babies were born with the help of midwives. Candles glowed with dots of orange flame that suddenly turned brilliant gold. Smoke wafting in the air curled with the scents of apples and good dirt. 2 more women gave birth with just the help of their lovers. Choirs held their notes, and songs echoed upon each other, words of prayer and hope solidifying the intention of what was to come. Golden auroras curled all around the mountains.

The sky far above the Spellsurge Mountains held the first ‘moon’ that had come about from [Seeds of Atunir]. That ‘moon’ was just as much a planet as Veird was a planet, though. It supported oceans and continents and it even had multiple layers of ‘Surface’, with towers of eternal stonewood linking one land to the other, and brilliant lights of [Kaleidoscopic Radiance] making the whole thing just as bright as any sun. It needed to be bright, after all. The outer surface of Fenrir would have had no light otherwise.

Over a million such ‘moonlights’ existed, surrounding Fenrir at equal distance to each other. They were not full coverage. They were 65% coverage.

The original Red [Sunlights] in the sky of Fenrir were already gone, eaten by the [Seeds of Atunir] in the last doubling.

Tenebrae hovered a hand above a big blue button. A ‘READY’ sign glowed above the button. His voice layered among the prayer, “Commencing in 3, 2…”

His voice trailed away.

Erick waited for other Ericks to appear, to tell them this was a bad idea. Tenebrae waited for the same.

No one else appeared.

Erick nodded to Tenebrae.

Tenebrae slammed the [Duplicate] button.

All the moonlights corralling Fenrir copied themselves, each one splitting off from itself and casting itself into a different position around the dyson sphere, doubling the light upon that patchwork world where people died and the Red thrived. Erick watched it happen from future selves out there, and from in here. In this space, this smaller representation, golden dots floated around the white weaver map, and just like what was happening outside, those dots doubled. Those dots moved faster than physics should have allowed. Within moments the new lights took their places around Fenrir. The grid solidified.

Power thrummed.

And that was full coverage. That was it—

Ah.

And then came a problem.

Every single golden dot surrounding the white sphere map suddenly flickered deeper gold, a realer sort of gold. The entire map turned solid, drops of metal hanging in the air around a lightform sphere that was no longer white and no longer light, but fully Red, and as solid as glass.

Erick did not have time to frown, but his lips were certainly moving in that direction.

And then he gave himself all the time he could ever need, stepping outside of time.

Many things happened all at once, but for Erick it took several hours.

For starters, the Weaver map wasn’t telling him anything at all. So he looked outside. The silver Spellsurge Mountains were still the same, with golden wheat growing here and there and people praying in the fields, staring at the sky. Erick looked up, along with all the people.

The first planetoid was like a ball of white light, but upon closer inspection it was a whole bunch of white towers and brightly-lit land and waters. It was also starting to Redden at the edges. Specifically, along the right edges, or rather, ‘eastward’, if one were to call it that, and Erick was calling it that, so that’s what it was. It was as though someone was sticking Red needles into the eastern side of every part of the planet up there. Erick guessed that the attack was only 1% of the way through the planet, but even 1% was enough to really do some damage.

Erick cast his gaze further, and saw the same problem playing out on every tenth planet out there. He allowed a single moment to pass in real time, watching as more Red limned the eastern edges of 1 out of every 3 planets. Erick guessed the remaining planets were close to falling to the same whatever that this was.

Erick didn’t allow another moment to pass.

That single extra moment allowed him to see more of the effect upon the first planet, overhead, and that was enough to let him know what was happening, somewhat.

The problem had started as a Redding of the eastern edges, but it had rapidly proceeded into a Red-drilling, like someone was pelting the planet with an endless, impossibly large wash of disintegrating Red raindrops—

“Ah," Erick said, “This is the Whirlpool.”

Erick had Named the attack, and the true nature of the attack appeared to him.

Silent and suddenly there, all of the space outside of Fenrir’s Scheme had become a torrential spinning wash of particulates, like a storm of [Erasure Bolt]s. That Whirlpool, like a corona of death, discharged from the Scheme and washed from east to west, almost like an uncountable ocean of fish.

Fish, eh? More fish, too. Nothanganathor’s ‘time out fish chomp’ had been his opening move against Erick and it had sent Erick many decades and Layers away. And here now there were more fish. Erick wondered if Nothanganathor had leaned into that because he was a leviathan, or because he had been close to Margleknot who was also Yggdrasil who loved fish. Or maybe he just liked fish? Erick loved scarlet king, himself. Great eating, that one.

It was a topic for another day.

Focusing on the attack, Erick knew this was not a simple attack that could be mitigated through his work alone. They had prepared for this.

Erick Stepped over to Solomon, who was frozen in time in his Black Castle, standing around in a room full of tools to prevent whatever might come. He was in his normal body, a hand half extended toward the tool that he had probably recognized that they needed long before Erick had realized the same. It was the Ocean Calmer, the thing Solomon had taken from the Black Gate to use against a theoretical Whirlpool.

Solomon had good instincts, but he couldn’t really use them right now.

Solomon was not actually frozen in time. It was more like Erick had stepped outside of time. Erick thought about bringing Solomon to this perspective for a moment. Solomon probably couldn’t handle this perspective for very long, but he was a True Wizard so assumptions were best left elsewhere. Erick couldn’t actually bring Solomon into this frame of sight without actively working against Solomon’s power, though, and Solomon had a lot of power.

So Erick asked him, “Hey. Want to join my perspective for a minute?”

Slowly, surely, Solomon flickered gold and silver, and then his eyes began to move. Slowly, he looked at Erick. Slowly, he began to speed up.

He was using [Haste] magic to speed himself up, though. He wasn’t simply outside of time. He’d probably try that trick soon enough, but there was no need for him to go wasting willpower like that right now.

Erick held out a hand toward Solomon’s hand, “Want a boost?”

Solomon started to say, “Yes,” but he only got out, “Yeeeeeeee.”

It was more of a high-pitched whine that wasn’t even really there, because it had needed to move through the air to get to Erick and it wasn’t moving fast enough to do that.

Erick took Solomon’s hand.

Solomon jerked, his body briefly twisting hard and almost rocketing away, but he moved fast enough to cancel his own [Haste] buffs, and then he was there with Erick.

“I need the Ocean Calmer,” Erick said, as Solomon was regaining himself. “And I think this attack is actually coming at us from a side slice of this Layer 789.”

“Then you need the Piercer, too. The Piercer was made to break into hostile gate spaces and personal demiplanes, so I don’t know how well it’s going to work here, but it should work, or you can make it work.” Solomon gestured to a hallway. “Take a Peaceful Garden, too. It was one of the things we got from Margleknot. It might help make things play nice. We have five of those. Do you want to save the Whirlpool? I wasn’t able to take one from the Dark.”

“Nah. I’m fine with destroying something that can do that much damage.”

Solomon said, “Sure. I have to let go, now. It’s straining.”

A brief little talk, both of them knowing what they needed to do. It was nice.

Erick let go, and Solomon looked like he was halfway to saying something else about how much it was hurting him, but there was no need. Blood and broken crystal were collecting around his face and mouth and vocal chords, and even on his hands and neck; every part that he had moved in order to speak with Erick in Erick’s time apart from time. He’d probably cough up blood when his time came about...

He would be fine.

If Solomon wasn’t a True Wizard then Erick could have very easily imposed his time upon him, but Solomon was mostly immune to that sort of outside interference.

Erick went and collected the Ocean Calmer and the Piercer. The Calmer was a simple white sphere about a meter across, while the Piercer was a wicked knife made of some black material. The Peaceful Garden, in the room down the hallway and to the right, was one of several bonsai-like things, made with tiny trees that were actually full grown trees but cultivated small, and a bunch of moss and tiny crystals. Gardens were one of the main exports from the Garden Universe, and Erick had picked up several while in Margleknot, because they ‘calmed spellwork down’, and that seemed like a good idea to have at the time.

When he was done with his shopping trip, Erick Stepped back to the Spellsurge Mountains.

Things had changed.

Rozeta and Atunir were there, waiting for him, along with Phagar and Melemizargo. Koyabez, Sininindi, Sumtir, and Aloethag, were also present, for the room was still the same room that Erick had left, but it was like the walls and people and tech were all tucked away into the background, and here, surrounding the map, was the truest reality imaginable. A few other gods stuck out in the background, from Fangorl of the Wilds, to even Demon King Dinnamoth.

Erick tilted his head a little, to look upon the normal space. The gods vanished and there were the time-frozen people kneeling in prayer and Tenebrae on the cusp of freaking out at the new Redness of the Weaver.

Erick tilted his head back and looked upon the gods. “So we’ve got this Ocean Calmer, a Piercer, and a Peaceful Garden. Anyone got a preference?”

Sininindi said, “Ocean Calmer.” Rozeta added, “And me.” Aloethag said, “Also me.”

The big white sphere went to the goddesses.

Koyabez said, “Peaceful Garden.” Atunir added, “Me, too.” Fangorl just nodded. Surprisingly, Demon King Dinnamoth joined that option, too, saying, “And me.”

They all got the bonsai garden.

Phagar said to Erick, “I’ll be with the Garden, too. Everyone not directed anywhere else will be with the Garden.”

“Good to know.” Erick looked to the remaining three. Melemizargo, Sumtir, and Zephyrspray. “Piercer?”

Melemizargo said, “Realm Piercer.”

“Oh? Not just ‘Piercer’?” Erick floated the black dagger to them and Melemizargo did not elaborate.

The knife held in the air between the impossibly large dragon, the warrior of righteousness, and the always-moving goddess of travel.

Things changed just outside of sight, on the other side of vision.

Erick couldn’t see it but he could feel it, so he tilted his head a little bit to see them better.

The room turned into a massive grand cathedral filled with way too many people and way too many hopes and prayers. All the gods were their true selves beyond that little change in perspective. From Rozeta’s endless white body in the clouds to Sininindi’s crashing ocean and eternal adamantium/lightning storm, to the ocean of blood that was Aloethag’s Red Dream.

Erick gazed upon that Red Dream for a moment. He saw orcols and life-after-death and life-in-the-Dream. It had been a long time since he had participated in that part of life, here on Veird, when he had shared a weird night in his mind with Mog and Al. Mog was gone now; Erased. Al was a Shade these days. Based on the Red nature of Malevolence, a lot of orcols were looking into renaming the Red Dream, but the name was the name, and it was stuck for now.

Erick righted himself and he stood in the single room-outside-of-time. “Is that everyone— Ah! Good. Hello.”

Shadow and Fairy Moon stepped into the room. An entourage followed behind them, from Queen Gregarious to Gnowmi to Enchanter’s Guile, the golden metallic fox padding along on a Path of Springtime, like all the others.

Fairy Moon and all the fae with flowers in their hair or dirt on their skin, stepped over to the Peaceful Garden with Rozeta and Atunir and most of the gods, all of them intoning together, “Here we Stand, on solid Ground.”

Gregarious and the water and metal fae went to the Ocean Calmer with Sininindi, their words like a singular echo, “Here we Rise, with washing Tide.”

Shadow and the final rest of the fae stepped toward Melemizargo and the Realm Piercer knife, intoning, “Here we Cut, with rugged Knife.”

Erick remained where he was, at the control of the system. The [Spellsurge Weave] was an orb of red glass ribbons becoming a spiraling, expanding, Erasing presence, surrounded by tiny gold dots that were about to give way to the flood. Erick wouldn’t let that happen.

2,097,152 and 1 planets vibrated.

Erick spoke with thunderous power, “Here we Crush, Script over Scheme.”

The encirclement gonged.

- - - -

A child ran under the light of the sun across a break in the ground, leaping from desert to grasslands, and then running faster. The demons were coming, and they weren’t like grandma and grandpa. They were the Old Demons, and the child had been running for days. He had been living in the settlements outside of Stratagold and now he was up here, on the Surface, except it wasn’t the Surface at all.

Behind him, the many-legged clawer stabbed across the ground, pulling itself across the land. Its face was the face of the child’s mother, calling out, “Don’t run away so fast! Mommy can’t catch you if you run that fast!”

Then came the laughter.

The child tried not to cry—

The sky vibrated.

The Old Demon stopped chasing but the kid did not stop running.

And then the kid saw the sky ahead, where mountains topped the endless horizon. A gently-curving line of moons lay across the sky, and some sort of red rose from the sky, rising upward into the moons. The red had not been there before, and now it was there.

Everything turned Red.

Just as fast, the moons vibrated, sending out what could only be a [Holy Wave] of power from each and every one of them.

That wave crashed into the Red.

The ground heaved, and the child was in the air.

The sky came down, and then there was no breath. No down. No up.

The sun/moons in the sky went bright.

The world broke.

The child began to pass out from the trauma of it all, from the cold and the pressure that was not pressure at all, and from the rocks cast from the ground like [Rock Bolt]s, but in that moment, White Sparks drifted across the world, scouring the Old Demon from existence and then moving on.

Hours later, the child woke in a field of pristine grass and a blue box he had missed so very much appeared to him.