Ar'Kendrithyst - Chapter 248, 2/2

Erick lay in bed with Quilatalap, staring at the ceiling, saying, “I know there’s this anti-meme in the air, Quilatalap, and everyone has been exposed to it and that’s hampering our investigations… But from what Zolan and Burhendurur and Poi have told me, memes should not be this powerful. There are always ways around them. They’re basically just very, very advanced Book Magic… And it really seems like we should have figured out something solid about it by now… Solomon’s memories are shot, though. He knows something just like Debby knew something, and Solomon is fixated on the idea that if he gains more power he can do something, and I’m kinda worried about that.”

Erick had opened up about a lot with Quilatalap in the last several hours they had both spent inside their [Hasted Shelter]-surrounded cottage in the Storm’s Edge dungeon. Both of them were free to be themselves in this space, for no one else could ever find them or know about them in here. This place was secure.

Quilatalap had allowed Erick to talk about everything, without giving much back except to question motivations and desired outcomes. But now, with one arm around Erick and both of them warm together, he began, “If the anti-meme is insidious enough to cause Melemizargo to do any sort of Wizardry at all, then… I’m not sure how to help you with that, Erick, except to be here for you, and with you, and to say that no matter how dangerous the effect is, ultimately you have survived this long and so has Veird, so we must be doing something right.” He continued, “As far as Solomon goes, I can say that you at your worst is still better for this world than a lot of people at their best, and I highly doubt that Solomon is anything close to ‘dangerous for the world’… But soul shifting or whatever it is that was done to him can be truly life altering. I would have to see Solomon myself to make a judgment call, but since you and everyone else has survived and Solomon was at a wake and not killing people, he’s probably fine.” Quilatalap looked at Erick, and said, “I’d trust you or any shade of you with power, and even if I don’t understand the exact nature of whatever happened with Solomon and Debby, I trust Solomon with power, too…” He looked away. “But at the same time I trust Melemizargo with power, even if he was insane for a very long time, so maybe I’m not the best one to go to for making judgments of that nature.”

Erick smiled, holding onto Quilatalap a bit stronger, saying, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” And then Quilatalap put it all out there, asking, “Now… Do you want to talk about how to get Debby back? What steps Solomon might consider taking? I’m rather sure that’s a near-impossible task, but I might be able to provide a perspective that is rather uniquely qualified at bringing very, very dead people back to life, as compared to Guile, who probably gets through life with fae trickery…” Quilatalap said that last word with heavy disdain, holding back a tide of dislike. He moved on. “Or do you want to help me with the dungeon? And the Lightning Shield?”

“Let’s just lay here for a little bit longer and then…” Quilatalap hadn’t wanted to visit the slime dungeon yet, because this dungeon here was taking up all of his interest and time, but things had changed recently. So Erick offered, “Do you want to come visit the Black Gate Dungeon? Or the ‘slime dungeon’. Not sure about the name yet. And yes; we should get the Lightning Shield before we go. I can make that final step happen, or be there for it, or however you’ve set it up.” Erick asked, “Have you finally figured out something you wanted from the Old Cosmology? To rescue from beyond the Black Gate?”

Quilatalap shook his head a little. “The copies of myself that are Vanya and Soltic are both great dungeon masters, but I won’t leave this assignment especially when Prophecy looks to be headed in this direction. I’m the director of the main defensive structure in the area, after all. If I stepped away I would never be able to erase that dereliction of duty in the eyes of the Pantheon, and especially in Sininindi’s eyes.” He patted Erick where he held him, then got up off the bed. “I still don’t have a target for you beyond the Black Gate, but besides that—” With a big smile and his lower tusks jutting far, he said, “Let’s go see if I managed a ‘Black Gate’ of my own.”

Erick got out of bed and was dressed in a flash, smiling as he said, “You’re really happy about this.”

“Taking things out of the Dark is a legend, Erick. So yes, I am excited.”

“Did you recreate the whole Ritual of Destruction? How many ‘Shades’ are we talking?”

Quilatalap smiled as he flickered with shadow and armor appeared atop his body. It was black and angular and he had two great big curved horns on his head, like he was some sort of demon-dragon-orcol hybrid. He looked quite dashing, actually, and very similar to how he looked the first time Erick met the man, back when he was called ‘Caretaker’ and he pretended to be the Shade of the Armory.

“The ‘Ritual of Breaking’, though ‘Destruction’ works a little bit, but it’s more complicated than that. It’s about using opposing magic to fully break something. Elemental Destruction is in there, of course, but the main element to use against something made of Lightning is Elemental Abyss,” Quilatalap said. “The whole thing is already almost too real to be comfortable, so I’ve kept the entire thing in a [Stop] until I’m ready to go inside. We’ll have to fully purge the scenario after we make it all fully real and take the Shield, for I will not be someone who brings forth over a hundred ‘normal’ Shades to Veird.” Quilatalap forced some of his mirth away and looked Erick right in the eyes as he clearly stated, “We’re not saving these Shades, Erick. None of that, you hear?”

Erick raised an eyebrow. “… That’s concerning.” After a moment, Erick decided to trust Quilatalap’s judgment— Which reminded Erick— “I thought you weren’t letting people delve the place until it was fully ready? Until the Storm passed? I heard delvers were in the dungeon already.”

“Eh!” Quilatalap shrugged, his black fullplate making Erick feel some interesting ways as the archlich continued to move with grace even under all that black metal. “Plans changed, and the Regency and Everbless and the Priests want money and assurances. They’ve been sneaking in all the time, too, using the monster entrances, and when they found 2 of the 6 main dungeons fully realized they decided to push the issue. Water and Stone have been ready for a month, but Fire, Light, and Air are only another month away. And now the Storm is almost here. All those facts sort of combined last month, and so I had to approve some people, if only to let them inspect the dungeon in their backyard… And then they took advantage and started delving, which is normal, I suppose.”

“Have they gotten into the Shadow side yet?”

“That place is locked up tight, so I don’t think so.” The Caretaker held up a hand to the side and a brilliantly dark spear flashed into his gauntleted grip, the heavy butt of the thing hovering just a centimeter above the ground while the head flickered with reflected starlight. A void spear; one of the strongest types of weapon there were. Quilatalap was going all out, it seemed. “I aim to keep the Shadow Dungeon that way. After we partake of the ritual and extract the Shield, I’m ending that scenario.” He said, “You should know that I hadn’t really forgotten how terrible some of my coworkers used to be, but the reminder is why I requested you don’t extend a [Blessing of Empathy] to any of them at all. They’re from another era and I cannot trust them with anything; they would break that Empathy and just turn into a malignant force, Erick”

“I understand. Message received.” And then Erick pointed at the spear. “I thought that was your Void Spear, but it’s more than that, isn’t it. It’s a major artifact.”

Quilatalap grinned. “It is more than my normal Void Spear, this is correct. Your offer of rescues of artifacts from the Dark is appreciated, but I can make my own just fine.”

“I knew you could, but it would have been rude and unkind not to offer.”

Quilatalap leaned in and gave Erick a quick kiss. “You ready to get going?” He gave a nice turned side-profile and smiled. “Or do you want to ogle me some more?”

“Ogling is great.” And yet, Erick could see that Quilatalap was really interested in getting the show on, so Erick added, “But we can do that later.”

“Excellent!” Quilatalap flipped his visor down. His eyes glowed white as soon as the visor locked in place, solidifying his persona as ‘The Caretaker’. “You’re probably good in what you’re wearing, but something more dangerous might be appropriate.”

Erick looked down at himself. It was all highly professional white with black trim and silver accents. “This is standard ‘fancy attire’— Oh. Wait. I see.”

“Go darker, please.” Quilatalap said, “And be prepared to be the strongest version of yourself, because anything less is asking to be assassinated at this ritual.”

Erick put on a smile, and put on his black outfit. “I would expect nothing less from Shades.”

Quilatalap rapidly added, “And also Purodhalia decided to show up; he’s been here for a week now, and he’ll likely be at the ritual because he likes the Shadow Dungeon. The [Stop] doesn’t work on him, like usual.”

Erick had a lot of mixed feelings about that.

“… Well… It will be nice… To see Purodhalia again, I suppose— Is he actually cognizant this time?”

Purodhalia was the black spiker ‘monster’ that chased Erick and Jane across the desert when they first fell to Veird all those years ago. He was Melemizargo’s very, very old [Familiar], and he was barely able to hold a thought in his large spiky body for much longer than a day. He only really communicated with the Shades, preferring only to speak to Champions based on what Erick had learned about him in the previous years, but mostly Purodhalia hid. He was very good at hiding. The largest interaction Erick had ever had with the [Familiar] was there at the very beginning of his life on Veird, when he matched Erick and Jane’s running speed until Erick [Cleanse]d them, removing Melemizargo’s scent marker.

Other than that, Purodhalia had popped up a few times in very random places, like near the Wake Up House years ago, and then another time over by Olooraptoor in Nelboor, before he raced away once he had been seen. Erick wasn’t sure of what connection Purodhalia had with the whole hierarchy of the Cult, the Clergy, and Melemizargo and the Dark, but he was somewhere at the level of a ‘special Shade’.

Mostly, the bundle of long spikes, like a thick black urchin, hid until Melemizargo gave him very small, easily executed commands, like ‘protect these people that smell like me’. Other than that, Purodhalia was easily spooked and prone to wandering off from whatever task he had been given.

“Purodhalia is the same as he’s always been,” Quilatalap said. “But he has stuck around here for a while. Not sure why. Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Ahh…” Erick picked up what he was putting down. It was time to properly get to work. Erick took a moment and tried to fully divorce himself from his anger at Melemizargo for what happened to Debby. It helped that Debby had chosen… Had chosen to go out on her own terms. Erick breathed, and then he asked the Dark in the corners of the room, “Why is Purodhalia here, Melemizargo?”

“He has to be somewhere.”

Quilatalap was ready for the response. Even so, the Archlich of Necromancy Itself froze as Melemizargo’s voice filled the room. He thawed after a moment.

“Good enough of an answer as any,” Erick said. Then he took Quilatalap’s hand into his own. “You’re gonna be able to be yourself for this, right? Are we in danger of people spying on this?”

“I will be there, which is why I put on the armor. No one should be capable of seeing us or interacting with that space.”

“Good.” Erick felt better. “I was hoping I had read you right.”

 

– – – –

Erick felt rather well-dressed in his absolute-black suit. He even had a black half-mask, so that was kinda fun. Ophiel was trying out a full-black coloring of his own with some heavy sharpness to his feathers, like he was a cross between a black crow and an angel-knives [Familiar]. The little guy looked great. Erick was ready.

The Ritual of Breaking took place, of course, in Ar’Kendrithyst.

The sky was bright and all of the purple-red spires of Ar’Kendrithyst were filled with dancing shadows, but thunderclouds roiled in the distance. Wind flowed through the upper levels of the Dead City and sparks gathered on the corners of crystal, like glinting white and gold hatred. But shadows roiled harder than clouds, and darkness drowned the lightning. Thunderheads got no closer than the walls of the Dead City. The ritual site was well protected from Sininindi.

They were in a well known location; the Abyssal Lake. Or at least high above it, near the skyline of the Dead City.

The land to the southwest was crowded with bulbous, black crystals, each of the largest ones easily kilometers wide. That was the Armory, as it had been for the last 900 years, until Erick came along.

Ahead of Erick and Quilatalap, beyond a crystal bridge that ended in nothing, lay a grand hole in the skyline. That absence continued down 30 kilometers, the red-purple crystal of Ar’Kendrithyst turning firmly purple and darker when it got deep enough, with the waters at the bottom of this area all firmly black. This was the Abyssal Lake. The only thing Erick truly knew about this place was that this is where things went to die in the depths, drowned by Abyssal Magic that was deeper here than in most other places on Veird. This is where Fallopolis murdered the Shades she had decided to Cull from the Clergy, for things died easily down there, but that was only one small slice of what happened in this place, and Fallopolis wouldn’t be here in Ar’Kendrithyst for another… 400 years?

Erick asked, “When did this happen, exactly?”

Quilatalap stood at Erick’s side, looking like a proper Shade, his helmet making his eyes glow white. “Roughly 650-ish post Sundering. About 100 years after the theft of Kendrithyst from the wrought. This Abyssal Lake used to be their Pure Lake; a source of great healing. But then we desecrated it and so it was used to kill the unkillable for a very long time; until you came along and changed everything.” He asked, “I think Anhelia is still trying to make it Pure?”

“Is that what she’s doing,” Erick said, as an answer slid into place regarding a question he didn’t even think to ask. “I wasn’t sure what she was doing… But I wouldn’t have guessed that. Elemental Purity is Banned, so that’s never gonna happen like that— Ah. Sorry. Silenced and Banned.”

The air had flexed when Erick mentioned Elemental Purity, in such a clear manner. ‘Pure’ was fine. But ‘Purity’ was not.

Quilatalap shrugged off the minor inconvenience of the Script’s interference, looking concerned as he said, “I’m surprised you know about that. Yes; she can’t make it Pure as in Purity, but she can make it Pure as in Pure Water. That is the meaning I was going for.”

Erick chuckled as he realized Quilatalap had heard him say ‘Elemental Purity’. “I guess you put up a few anti-Script measures in here?”

Quilatalap looked even more uncomfortable, and Erick realized that he had misinterpreted Quilatalap’s earlier emotions. “Actually, I have not put any anti-Script measures into this place at all. Sininindi wants the Script here, and I have obeyed. But… But the real Abyssal Lake breaks down everything… And I think that is what we are experiencing. I believe I told you that I had to [Stop] this area to keep it from becoming real, and—” Quilatalap stopped suddenly.

For echoing laughter and joyful hatred flowed up and out of the Abyssal Lake ahead, filling the sky with taunts.

“Okaaaay,” Erick said, “That sounds ominous.”

“I set up the place to be rather real and I think your presence or my presence or something has triggered something deeper. This is go-time, Erick. I had hoped to have some time explaining what was going to happen—”

A meter-thick line of gold-white lightning chased through the skies all around at the speed of light and gathered into a crackling whirlpool above, to strike straight down into the center of the Abyss ahead. Divine lightning hit a sea of Shadow and Gloom and broke off in a hundred different layers of varying density down in the canyon ahead, to spark left and right, to get gobbled up by leviathan shadows with ruby-red eyes. The wyrm-sized monsters seemed to like eating lightning, and especially the divine kind, which… Was not that surprising, considering what was happening here. The Shade would have prepared something like this to combat the Lightning, for sure.

“… That should not have happened yet,” Quilatalap said, walking forward to stand directly above the abyss below. Erick was right there with him as they both looked down into the black depths. Tiny lights held in the black down below, maybe 25 kilometers away. Hard to say. Quilatalap said, “Looks like the party has started. It’s rather straightforward, Erick. We get down there, you take the Lightning Shield, and we escape. But. They are prepared for a full assault and they will take the Shield and hide it if we kill any of them outside of throwing our weight around. We have to approach the gathering as a part of the gathering; meant to be there.”

“Okay.” Erick took Quilatalap’s free hand into his own and the big guy flinched a moment, before holding tight. He was nervous for some reason. Erick spoke calmly, and a little happily, as he seductively asked, “Can I be your plus-1 for this event?”

Quilatalap gripped Erick’s hand tight. “That sounds like a great way to play this.” He breathed out, and became the Archlich of Necromancy Itself, the Immortal Scourge of the Rage, and a good twenty other names given to him by people and even a few gods ever since Veird fell into the New Cosmology. Mostly, he was the false Shade Caretaker. In an even voice, Caretaker stated, “Kill two or three of them when they challenge you; but don’t endanger the whole group. The current Champion of Melemizargo is a man named Verrod of Vast Skies. Defer to him and to me, but to no one else. This event today is a triumph over the Pantheon. All of the Clergy will approach it as thus until events conspire otherwise.”

Erick squeezed Quilatalap’s hand once more, then let go and adjusted the collar of his suit. “Ready.”

Quilatalap nodded once, and then he stepped off the edge of the road.

He fell like a black meteor, straight into the maw of a shadow leviathan that was the size of a large dragon. Caretaker punched straight through the beast’s throat, the archlich’s touch ripping away gloom and churning the meat of the very-dead leviathan into a splash of gore. Amidst a red rain, Caretaker descended into the abyss, his trajectory and speed barely affected by the leviathan’s ‘attack’.

Erick followed, feeling Darkness all around like he was passing through a very, very large Black Gate. And maybe he was. Quilatalap had wanted to talk about what he had done to make this place, but he hadn’t gotten the chance, and exact reasonings were hard to suss out when Wizardry got involved. This particular jaunt seemed filled with Wizardry.

The red-eyed leviathans of shadow all around seemed rather real enough; more so than conjured monsters, anyway. Perhaps in Quilatalap’s original script for this part of this dungeon, the person going first would meet the leviathans first, which held with most established dungeon ‘tropes’, as the Delver’s Guild outlined as ‘best practices’ for first encounters. But the red-eyed beasts were eyeing Erick rather hard from the distant edges of the abyss, and they seemed to be thinking of a course of attack. Or at least some of them were. ‘All monsters left behind will attack you eventually’ was another trope of best practices…

Eh.

If they attacked, Erick would kill them. For now, he followed—

Ophiel caught the wind a little and ripped off of Erick’s shoulder, giving a sudden squeak as he went. He came back to Erick’s shoulder fast enough, but Ophiel’s lost propriety seemed to be enough of a signal of weakness that the leviathans attacked.

Erick casually twisted Benevolence into kilometers-long ribbons of soft white lightning that went straight into Lightning-sucking maws and flashed deep into gloomy bodies. Organs and bones and previous meals briefly lit up those insides, like lightning passing behind clouds, and then erupted from every possible solidness inside, like the branching of trees. These particular red-eyed beasts could easily devour elemental Lightning, but Benevolence was not Lightning; it just looked like it.

In the flash of Erick’s power, seven of the nearest leviathans died in midair, their Elemental Gloom bodies losing their magical power, becoming dragon-sized corpses filled with charred holes and a bit of green growing here and there. As those bodies joined the fall of Erick and Quilatalap they began to grow even more life—

Bioluminescent mushrooms, all bright white and purple and green, sprouted out of the bodies. As those shrooms grew big enough they broke away from the leviathans like parasols catching wind. Spores spread, like glowing dust.

“Huh!” Erick called to Quilatalap. “That time they made mushrooms!”

Quilatalap burst through a leviathan that was larger than the first one, spreading more red rain around his fall. He looked up, then called out, “Looks great, honey!”

Erick smiled and laughed, and as he laughed, the sounds of laughing Shades rose through the abyss, their party down either going strong, or all of them were pretending at joy while they waited for Erick and Quilatalap to get closer before they tried some shit. They were probably going to try some shit as Shades were wont to do, but Erick had scared off the leviathans in the air, which made the fall into darkness a bit more bearable.

And yet the leviathans continued to gaze at Erick, their bodies poking out between the spaces between the kendrithyst spires, like the maw-filled fingers of an eldritch god peeking around the frame of a door, each of them with bright red eyes shining hard in the gloom.

Erick appreciated the white lights of the shroom’d corpses better than the eye lights of the leviathans. Since when did leviathans have eye lights that were different from white, anyway? How strange.

The shrooms made more sense, but only barely.

Erick hadn’t intended for his Benevolence to make life, but sometimes that happened. He never quite knew what life would sprout from the odder applications of Benevolence, either. Most of the time that life could grow well in the environment in which it originated, though, which was kinda neat.

Those fast-growing glowing shrooms with their wide parasols weren’t stable enough to stop or slow the falling leviathans, but those windcatchers did manage to withstand the wind pressure until they were full grown. Soon, many glowing mushroom caps trailed clouds of glowing spores, before they broke off from the falling corpse like falling stars and trailing nebulae. Soon, Erick had adorned the sky of Abyssal Lake with something akin to Elemental Starlight. Elemental Abyss destroyed a lot by its basic presence, but certain things flourished in the deep; Void and Star were two such Elements.

It wasn’t long till the leviathan bodies were mostly disintegrated, half-eaten by the spreading shrooms and half ripped apart by the wind, as they fell. That gore wouldn’t last long as soon as it hit the waters below, for something down there would surely eat it, but if not, then the mycelium colony Erick had birthed in this dangerous location would eventually finish the job.

Caretaker led the way, still falling in the dark, while Erick followed, starlight and glowing spores spreading far and wide. Looking up, the world was a point of light high above, like a sun. Everything else was black with red glints and soft starlight.

Down below, the Shades waited, cackling and laughing on what appeared to be… Well Erick wasn’t quite sure.

– – – –

The party took place on a whole bunch of black kendrithyst boats floating atop the Abyssal Lake, around a black crystal pier, all of the crystal chased with lights, while the sounds of the damned filled the air with ‘music’. It was a party of sorts, but it was, of course, a Shade party. This meant horrors, but the largest horror was the lake itself.

The whole lake was about 7-ish kilometers wide with the entire coast ending in sheer purple-black kendrithyst crystal cliffs and black ‘waters’ of Elemental Abyssal that were near-completely still. There was probably a layer of actual water atop the elemental manifestation of the depths, but it was as thin as a razor’s edge. What lay beneath that was the physical and magical sensation of crushing, and that crushing sensation extended into the air above the waters. Erick hadn’t experienced much air or water pressure on Veird because the whole world was Scripted to be mostly uniform in ‘depth’. There were, of course, places where ‘the depths’ survived, and this Abyssal Lake was one of those places. Erick and Quilatalap and all the Shades were easily surviving this crushing reality. Some adventurous Shades were even showing off by swimming in the Elemental Abyss and splashing each other with droplets of the stuff…

Which actually was impressive. Erick could do that, too, but it was just so… Extra.

Elemental Abyss, kilogram for drop, was ‘denser’ than even the densest of metals. A single splashed drop thrown at a person was like hitting them with a [Force Bolt]; it did damage. Erick watched as one Shade woman splashed a minor wave at that other Shade, and though it looked like some adults playing in the water, it was more like one person throwing 10,000 [Force Bolts] at another. The man protected himself and twisted the Abyss around him as he laughed, pretending not to feel the drops, but he did. There was no way around that. The pressure at the surface of the Abyssal Lake was already akin to being [Telekinetic Squeeze]d on all sides by an archmage, so to actually swim in that water was like experiencing, well, a Shade casting [Telekinetic Squeeze].

Because of this omnipresent pressure, it was little surprise that every single Shade had on a Domain of some sort. Normally, having a Domain or an active power at a Shade party was a grave form of disrespect, but these people were very ready for both the Ritual to come, and for someone to try and interrupt it all. This ‘boat gathering on the pier’ looked like ‘fun’ and ‘games’ and people drinking alcohol on a Fourth of July boat party, but that was a very thin veneer, and beneath it all lay horrors.

Erick watched one of those obvious horrors as he descended to the welcoming zone of the party with Caretaker.

Over there, atop a kendrithyst platform floating atop the Abyss, was a small orchestra made from twisted metals and twisted bodies. What was left of several people breathed through flutes and through tubes, making something akin to ‘music’ with their basic bodily functions, but which was really just them trying to breathe. A nearby Shade ‘motivated’ the band with raising or lowering their platform closer to the waters. When one person broke down crying and they went way out of tune, the Shade telekinetically ripped them away from their cohort and threw them in the waters where they instantly compressed into thin lines of gore and more twisted metal.

Erick sighed as he softly landed with Caretaker atop a circle of black kendrithyst that was the welcoming zone, floating atop the lake by a mere decimeter. The pressure standing on that welcoming platform wasn’t too bad because Erick had his sunform active, held tight against his skin and on his soul. Caretaker was doing fine, too, enveloped in Elemental Death. Most of the Shades were using Elemental Shadow to protect themselves, but some were using more alternative means.

Erick distracted himself from the horrors of the Shades by thinking about all of that for a moment.

His own Elemental Benevolence was probably the simplest way to protect oneself against an antagonistic force; simply pushing back on the enemy and clearing out a space of power for oneself. Such a defense was among the more expensive ways to protect oneself, but it was also average. In a lot of cases, it was better for a person to use an Element they were familiar with than one that did the job ‘better’, or cheaper.

Using Elemental Shadow against Abyss was cheaper, for Abyss was Shadow-aligned, and Shadow could either adapt to the depths with minimal effort, or simply choose to not be affected by the depths. A shadow cast from a person was not affected by pressure at all, after all. Either avenue of approach had its benefits and drawbacks. Adaptation led to one being able to act normally in such a situation, and was Jane’s preferred choice, with her Prismatic adaptive power. Acting like a cast-shadow divorced the user from the situation, though, making them ephemeral and non-interactive, protecting them from Abyss rather well.

Quilatalap’s Death Domain was simply the still, inevitable end that awaited all forces aimed his way. In that sort of understanding, Quilatalap’s Death Domain was both adaptation and evasion, but an adaptation of the exterior force into one that could be evaded and lived-within by Quilatalap.

Of course, that was Quilatalap’s and most other people’s idea of what ‘Elemental Death’ meant, which, in turn, is how Elemental Death protected them from outside forces. Most people had different ideas of what Elements did what, and that either contributed to or hindered how one could use those various Elements in various ways.

The Elements still had certain inalienable and non-connotative ways they functioned, though.

Some Elements had a very hard time existing down here just because of what they were, like Light and Air, and all of those comparable Elements, and especially Lightning. This fact made the Ritual of Breaking rather potent when used down here, in the Abyss, against the Lightning Shield.

That artifact sat on a central kendrithyst pillar in the middle of the Abyssal Lake, about 3 meters from the surface of the lake, and surrounded by a bubble of translucent Abyss. The Lightning Shield was a shield of pure white metal, simple in construction, with four small spikes around the edge and one slightly larger spike in the center of the shield, pointing outward. Lightning lingered upon those spikes, jumping from point to point, occasionally striking against the abyssal bubble-cage and yet failing completely to free itself.

It called to the Storm high above, so far beyond the walls of Ar’Kendrithyst, and the Storm tried, and failed to answer.

The shield was guarded by Shades, after all. It was also guarded by a leviathan that curled around the black crystal base, lounging around like a seal half on shore, half in the waves. That leviathan gazed at Erick and Caretaker with half-lidded red eyes before it turned away, to look at the Shades splashing in the ‘water’ in front of it.

From all across the small, impromptu gathering of boats and nude swimming in the depths, Shades were already looking their way, but most went back to their groups to talk about this or that when a war didn’t instantly break out. Only the ones nearest to the welcoming zone kept their eyes on Erick, and Caretaker.

One of those people stepped away from his group of ‘friends’, a smile full of fangs as he said, “Welcome to the party, Caretaker and guest. What might your name—”

And something shifted.

Erick saw that shift primarily in the souls of all the Shades all around, and in the power in the air. Like when people woke up beyond the Black Gate, the souls of the people here began to stabilize, to thicken with density that swirled into their cores and then went blank, for they were now beyond the scope of normal sensing magics, like all Shades tended to be unless they specifically made themselves otherwise.

But Erick’s All-Seeing Eye around his neck still made them and their actions visible.

He saw the one approaching them trying to sneak power through his bare feet, into the crystal underfoot, to strike up at Erick with some sort of Abyssal spellwork.

Erick pointed at the spellwork, interrupting the Shade’s words with his own. “If you fire that at me, I will annihilate you as I did those leviathans up above.” The Shade’s grin turned even more deadly and his spell mutated, falling deeper into the crystal, throwing up some sort of Illusion work to pretend to simply be stilled, while in actuality the spellwork went wide, into the Abyssal Lake, to prepare a well of power just beyond the welcoming platform. Erick adjusted his finger to point at the new source of power. “One last chance to not make this mistake.”

Caretaker spoke, “Kill him and be done with it, Erick.”

Erick did so, Benevolent Lightning flickering out to annihilate the Shade, piercing through a sudden protective spellwork blossoming around the Shade, made of Shadow, Abyss, and one final layer of what felt like a Water Domain, which had been the Shade’s strongest defense. It did not save him. Benevolence traversed all barriers. That Benevolence coruscated from the Shade’s dead flesh, sparking here and there as it ground itself upon the crystal underfoot, and upon the spellwork the Shade had been charging up.

Illumination soaked into the Abyssal Lake and ended there as the Shade fell to the ground and began sprouting glowing mushrooms. The light of those shrooms was comparable to the light of the lanterns and party lights hanging all around, and like those other lights the shrooms only served to make the shadows that much deeper.

As the Benevolence finished flickering and the shrooms finished growing, the gentle drift of spores and mushroom-infested leviathan gore began to strike the Abyssal Lake like sparks falling onto solid stone. Mostly, those sparks died. But here and there some shrooms began to grow upon the surface of the Abyssal Lake itself, like floating lilies.

Erick smiled over the corpse of the former Shade, saying to the man’s former group, “Hope you all don’t mind the lights! It’s not actually Lightning, as you’ve probably guessed, so it shouldn’t interfere with the Ritual of Breaking at all.”

Every nearby Shade was watching him, but many were watching each other more; Erick had made a splash, but he was not the target of focus yet. The Shades, as ever, fought each other more than they fought outsiders, for they were the power in this world and all outsiders were fair-game playthings.

Caretaker gave Erick an easy side-glare which was easy enough to read. Erick had stepped too far out of line, but it wasn’t a disaster yet.

Erick shrugged at Caretaker, saying, “There’s no way that my invitation here was going to go unnoticed. Might as well say hello properly.”

Caretaker gave a tiny nod.

Erick stepped forward and flicked the mushroom corpse into the Abyssal waters. Some of it sank under the surface, where tiny, near-invisible abyssal fish began to rip into it like a whole lot of carnivorous minnows, but most of the body stayed on the surface, the mushrooms growing from it shrinking under the pressure and glowing brighter, like stars upon an inverted sky. They looked sort of like puffballs.

So a multi-form sort of shroom. Beautiful.

Erick turned most of his attentions to the dead Shade’s small group, saying, “Hello there. I’m here for the show and maybe to steal something if an opportunity should arise.”

Slowly, surely, like a sun dawning, Erick watched as two of the three Shades from the dead Shade’s group went from ‘Do I need to kill him?’ to ‘Is this guy serious?’ to ‘Oh Melemizargo, he is! How hilarious! Let’s let someone else kill him’. The hard lines of thin lips turned upward at the edges and eyes full of light crinkled in the corners, and these Shades allowed Erick to believe that he was safe. A guy two barges over —who looked very ready to throw down— laughed first, and loud, and his reaction was probably more genuine. The girls and guy in the dead Shade’s group waved Erick off and then went back to talking amongst themselves, pretending not to look at Erick as they continued to openly plot against any others, discussing who they could murder to make themselves look stronger. The music of tortured souls once again rose into the thick air, and the party, which had never really stopped, resumed.

Erick took the dismissal from the first Shade group with aplomb, walking forward down the central pier of the gathered boat party, saying, “First thing to steal is some pastries. Caretaker!” Erick called out, as he turned— And Caretaker was already there right behind him. Erick pretended to be surprised. “Oy! You sure can sneak up on a guy’s backside when you want to!”

Shades chuckled, some of them still watching Erick for weakness. At his casual joke they mostly decided not to try shit, but some of them looked at Caretaker for weakness, because no matter what, Erick was being way too friendly with Caretaker, which meant this was a deep relationship. They looked to exploit that.

The Caretaker of the Armory put a hand on Erick’s empty shoulder, his voice rumbling, “I had forgotten how charming you can be sometimes.” Quilatalap was playing up the deep relationship, which was not that hard. “Want to strip and join the swimming?”

“Ahhh! You tempt me… Later. I should go say hello to that guy you mentioned, right?”

“Sure.” Caretaker lifted his head toward the barge next to the Shield. “Verrod is over there.”

Verrod of Vast Skies was a demi of grey skin and white hair who sat on a comfortable beach chair on a taller barge than most. He wore a loincloth of black and his white eyes were focused on the sky, on falling mushrooms that fell like slow comets to the lake. He was not the only one watching the show still falling from above. Aside from the other mostly-nude people on his barge, Purodhalia was there.

Melemizargo’s [Familiar] was a 10 meter tall black-spiked sea urchin. He clung to the back of Verrod’s barge like a settled spider.

“Oh!” Erick said, as he started walking that way. “Purodhalia is here, too?”

Meaning: ‘Is that really Purodhalia?’

Quilatalap said, “I’m as surprised as you are.”

Ah. That was the real Purodhalia.

Erick had no idea how they were ‘beyond the Black Gate’ without the ‘disintegration from incompatibility with Particles and this world’ issue. How, exactly, had Quilatalap done all this? Where, exactly, had the Wizardry started to transform this world into something real? Maybe Sininindi was to blame, but really, Erick was probably to blame—

Or Melemizargo!

This might be Melemizargo’s fault. Yes. Let’s go with that.

Erick led the way down the pier and now they were there, at the gangplank leading up to the Champion of Melemizargo’s vessel. A few Shades lounging on the lower decks looked at Erick and Caretaker, swishing their drinks in hand, but none of them made to stop Erick as he led the way onto the ship itself.

Up a small staircase, up onto the upper sun deck, Erick strode, saying, “I have to say, I feel kinda overdressed.”

No one acknowledged Erick. All of them continued to stare at the slow starfall, seeming to enjoy it a lot.

Caretaker came up to Erick’s side. “The formal ceremony won’t be for a while so we can change if you want. Although, we are still waiting for Sininindi’s forces to make some sort of move.”

Without looking at Erick, Verrod said, “And you might be that move, Erick.” He tore his gaze from the sky, and that act seemed to pain him. With blazing white eyes he regarded Caretaker, and said, “Caretaker. Your new boyfriend sure can put on a show. What Element is that? Something new, and yet it appears like something old. Like Primal Lightning with a Growth flavoring.”

That was a dangerous accusation, but it had been said with all the depth of someone talking about the weather.

Caretaker nodded to Erick.

And Erick said, “It’s probablynot Primal Lightning, as far as I know. Probably.”

“… ‘Probably not’, he says.” Verrod sighed. “Either way you’re touched by Melemizargo, that’s for sure. Purodhalia told me to simply let you take the Shield, in honor of our shared loyalties to the Dark—”

The nearby Shades did not like that.

By their reactions, none of the other Shades had known this until Verrod had said it. Instantly, two Shades launched out of their chairs, saying variations of ‘No!’. Others were more devious and angry. Erick saw battle lines draw and alliances spread throughout the entire gathering of around 120 Shades. Some of them were ready to fight. Others would allow themselves to be dominoes that would join the fight as soon as someone else started it.

And then Verrod rose from his beach chair, taking command. He was slightly taller than Erick. “Show us proof that you are as much a Champion of Melemizargo as I am, and I will let you take the Shield without a fight. Fail in this task and be executed.”

Caretaker stepped forward, saying, “Do not do this, Verrod. You do not know what you are asking.”

“I’ve made my decree, Caretaker. Your man is free to choose his Path.”

Caretaker… stepped aside.

Quilatalap was concerned, but not overly. This was all a play, until it wasn’t.

Erick asked, “What kind of proof do you want?”

“The Ritual of Shade. Do it now.”

“Absolutely not,” Erick said, instantly deciding not to play around anymore. “I am walking too many fine lines and I refuse to fall off this knife edge that is my life. Pick another qualification.”

Tension coiled in the air like a dragon waiting to strike. Shades watched from the sidelines. The band was forced to silence. Laughter and conversation stopped. The Abyss filled the air all around, crushing and stifling, and Verrod of Vast Skies glared, sparks flickering across his features.

And then Verrod backed off. He raised his voice. “Our God has given me an order! I have been told to let this man take the Lightning Shield from this place! But we would not be Shades of Greatness if we did not Test those who come forth, walking their fine-edged Paths through Darkness, to see if they are worthy. And so! Three duels. If Erick survives those three fights to the death he walks with his prize. Who will fight him? Who will give him a proper Welcoming into the Dark?”

Three sanctioned duels? As Shades shouted out threats against each other and aired their grievances and Verrod named some initial names, Erick realized he was perfectly fine with this. Quilatalap was perfectly fine with this, too. Even Verrod and a few of the closest Shades could already see how this was going to go, which is why Verrod had chosen this path. Erick would kill some hot head Shades and silence those most opposed to Verrod and thus solidify his rule and prevent a larger bloodbath—

Something Red drifted through the air.

Erick felt his eyes focus on a threat he did not think was a threat.

The red-eyed leviathan which had been wrapped around the base of the bubble protecting the Lightning Shield. It was a threat. It raised its head and looked at Erick, red sparks flickering out of those unnatural eyes as some deep intelligence within also recognized that Erick was going to take the Lightning Shield home unless it did something—

– – – –

Verrod rose from his beach chair, and he was slightly taller than Erick. “Show us proof that you are as much a Champion of Melemizargo as I am, and I will let you take the Shield without a fight. Fail in this task and be executed.”

Erick flinched for some unknown reason, which was absolutely a mistake. Why had he flinched? Why did this… This feel so familiar? That was why he had flinched. All of this seemed familiar. Very… The same. Except not…

And. Ah.

Shit.

It had been a bad time to get a sudden bout of deja vu.

Verrod and every other Shade around were emboldened by Erick’s social fuck up. Erick had lost a lot of social currency in the matter of one crucial moment. Showing any sort of weakness at all in front of the Champion of Melemizargo? That’s an execution.

Caretaker glared at Erick’s back. Outwardly, Quilatalap had to play the part of a Shade, and Erick had just shown weakness, so he could not step in on Erick’s behalf. But inwardly, Erick knew Quilatalap was planning death. Subterfuge and a whole bunch of social reasoning demanded he start with, “What sort of proof do you desire, Verrod?”

A bad answer would lead to war. A good answer would lead to Erick getting the Shield without a massive and potentially deadly fight.

Verrod easily said, “The Ritual of Shade. When your boyfriend is one of us that should be good enough proof of his allegiances. Once that is done he can have the Shield, as ordered by Our Dark God.”

Well that wasn’t fucking happening.

Erick began, “I’m going to say two things, and you’re going to truly consider my words, Verrod, and all the rest of you.” Erick let his voice fill with the severity of the moment, as he said, “The first of my words is this: I absolutely refuse to become a Shade. I am walking too many fine lines and I refuse to fall down this knife edge that is my life. Pick another qualification. The second is this: Someone has [Return]ed us. Or maybe just me; I am not sure. That is what my flinch earlier was. I’m not sure who, or how, but someone [Return]ed in this space… Or something. This moment has happened at least once before.”

Verrod had been about to cut Erick off the very moment Erick ‘pretended to speak like an equal’, or whatever other phrase was passing through the Champion of Melemizargo’s mind. Someone else tried to interrupt when they saw that Verrod decided to let Erick speak, but the Shade of Vast Skies raised his hand at his side, not lifting his hand above his own waist, as he dismissed the interrupter. The interrupter went silent with his objections.

And Erick’s voice rang out across the gathering.

At the mention of [Return], things got complicated. Battle lines redrew as confusion passed through the group. Would they fight each other? Or some Time Mage? Was Erick lying, trying to save his skin? Some donned clothes and armor made of shadows or other powers anyway, preparing for the worst. The people playing in the black waters stepped onto the surface, their eyes going outward. Silence was the primary noise in the air—

“Huh,” Caretaker said. “He’s right.”

Verrod stared at Erick. And then he broke sightlines and looked outward, toward Erick’s falling mushrooms, and then beyond. “… We’re not under attack. It’s a small threat, whatever it is.” He turned and looked at Erick. “Our God has gifted you a Viewpoint beyond mortal ken.”

It was a question, and yet not.

It was enough of a decrease in tension over Erick that the battlelines of the Shades turned outward, instead of inward. Someone was attacking? Well then! Time to close ranks against the outside threat! It was very normal Shade behavior.

Meanwhile, the play between Erick, Verrod, and Caretaker continued.

Erick said, “I have not accepted power from him beyond that which is political.”

“Not surprising. The easiest way for a Cultist to rise to power is to never be an empowered Cultist at all.” Verrod looked to Caretaker. “What are his allegiances, Caretaker?”

“This entire world and all that lay beyond,” Quilatalap said, without reservation. “Peace and Truth.”

Some Shades were absolutely disgusted at that, and if Erick was reading them correctly, they were disappointed that someone with power would choose any path of Peace at all. Truth was more understandable for them.

Erick watched as a few Shades tried to slot Erick into existing Shade society, for this was obviously his debut, and he would be back for more later. Obviously.

Verrod looked at Erick, doing some judging of his own over Erick’s future in this world. And then he looked to Ophiel. “That [Familiar]. Is it Angelic, or merely Exalted?”

“Neither. His form is an affectation for the event.” Erick said, “Let’s see your real form, Ophiel.”

Ophiel glanced at Erick with his two black bird eyes, wondering if he meant what he was saying. Erick nodded. And then Ophiel’s eyes cleared to white, and ten more eyes appeared all across his wing-laden body. He was once again a bundle of mostly-fluffy white feathers, bright, inquisitive eyes, and a few hard-edged wingtip feathers at the end of his mess of limbs.

He chirped, “I’m here, dad!”

“Yes you are, Ophiel.” Erick turned to Verrod. “I’m rather against the Forever War in all ways. Fighting can be good for developing strength, but any real war upon this world would erase too much capability for growth.”

Verrod, the grey-skinned demi on a boat filled with other demis, cracked a real smile. “Yet another good answer—”

Suddenly, the Shield-guarding leviathan smashed into the side of the boat, spilling out a gout of Red Sparks from its eyes and its open maw—

– – – –

Erick fell through the air, high above the Abyssal Lake. Starfall fell around him—

I’ve been here before.

As Erick fell, following Quilatalap to the welcoming platform of the black kendrithyst pier below, Erick knew he had done this before. And yet, he also knew, for a fact, that he had never been here before, ever.

It was the strangest, worst feeling of deja vu that he could recall.

And then he saw the Path.

It was a worldline. His worldline. It went forward from where he was right then at that moment, and trailed behind him where he had been before. Erick had seen worldlines long before today, for mana sensing allowed one to see through time, to see the worldlines of all moving objects within the range and power of one’s mana sense.

But this was a different sort of worldline. Normally, it was incredibly difficult to see into the future at all. Teressa and Goldie could wipe the floor with anyone due to their own prognostication abilities, but they were like sighted people in a world full of the blind. Benevolence could see twists in distant futures, but even those twists didn’t always come to pass because those twists could be unwound if one saw them coming, and people did not always do as [Future Sight] said they would do.

Erick’s white path was different.

There were tiny branches here and there, like lightning striking out and yet not fully hitting somewhere. Erick could step off the path, but he did not want to. He stayed the main course.

Stepping onto the platform and annihilating that first Shade was simply following the path laid before him, which was easy. As he talked the sassy talk, he watched Shades become disinterested in him. He walked down the pier toward Verrod’s ship, like he was acting the part in a play that stretched out before him. If anyone else was capable of seeing his white path worldline then they would have said something because this path was a major imprint in the manasphere and every single real Shade in the area certainly had real power and real experience with magic and mana sense—

Oh.

This was like that time that Erick played with Benevolence prognostication and that plinko machine where if the ball landed in the red zone, he would kill a thousand people. But then Teressa and Aisha had shown up all on their own, telling him not to do that, and thus Erick did not. And then the three of them spoke through a ‘scripted event’, each of them speaking the best possible words to speak at that moment…

Or maybe that’s what happened? Erick was suddenly wondering if that really was what happened back then, because he certainly didn’t remember seeing a white path through the world back then, with all his cues and words picked out for him in the best possible way, but that is what had happened there, and that is what was happening here. Erick knew. Right before his eyes, Erick saw the best possible path forward.

This, then, was what Benevolence could really do.

Erick once again stood before Verrod, and that is where paths diverged. Some were better than others, but Erick had been looking at all of them long before he stood here, so he chose—

Something interrupted the proper path.

Verrod was talking.

And a hot headed Shade to the side saw red and stabbed forward with a pillar of Destruction aimed directly at Erick, while they also tried to wrap a Domain around him to prevent escape. They succeeded in wrapping him in that Domain… Mostly.

If this situation had occurred in the real world Erick would have opened a [Gate] and shunted the Destruction at another target. He didn’t like the way that red-eyed leviathan was staring at him, so Erick would have shoved this Destruction beam at that leviathan; it’d make a better mushroom farm than a guard.

Oddly enough, the Path of Benevolence adjusted itself even as Erick was coming up with ideas of how to escape. As Erick saw the way he wanted out, he also saw the Path that would take him there.

Erick picked the path that killed that leviathan.

… And all the rest, because apparently that’s also an option this new Path was giving him.

It was really quite odd how this new Path was adjusting in real time, as Erick experienced it, but he’d have to take all of that apart later.

Elemental Destruction was unmatched in its ability to annihilate, and this Shade, whoever he was, had cast his meters-thick Beam spell well. But Destruction was also destructive; it was hard to use on its own, and so everyone cheated to be able to use that Element. Most people cheated with a protective layer of some other Element between the caster and the Destruction. This Shade cheated in that exact same way, so nothing special there. Primarily he used Illusion, as evident by both Erick’s All-Seeing Eye, and that the guy’s Domain had flashed outward and fully enveloped Erick. Only Illusion and Light moved that fast, though that was a debate. Anyway. The Shade had layered a thin fog of Destruction inside the tube of his Illusion Domain, ensuring that Erick couldn’t just break the Domain without expending too much time. There was only one way out, and that was directly away.

The Shade had essentially placed Erick at the bottom of a test tube that was filling with annihilation from the bottom toward the top. Going nearer to the Shade would simply make Erick’s death happen faster.

So, in a way that was almost like Erick was on train tracks, and the train was coming right at him, Erick did what he would never do in a normal situation. He ran down the tracks, directly away from the train.

Well. Actually, he turned to Benevolence and outran the Destruction, staying within the tube of the Shade’s Destruction-lined Illusion Domain until he got far enough away to be able to take half a moment and punch through the Destruction and the Shade’s Domain.

Shade Domains were rather damned tough, you know. Erick didn’t want to test himself against the nearest parts of this Shade’s Domain, and it was a good thing he did not. Even with his power, it was still a close call to evade that Destruction Beam.

And now, freed of the assassination attempt, Erick had to prove himself.

So Erick turned to Benevolent Lightning and raced upward, slamming right into every single red-eyed leviathan in the entire sky of the Abyssal Lake before coming back down to land right where he had been, on Verrod’s boat. And then he zapped toward the Shade who had attacked him, making sure his own attack was very telegraphed. Lighting launched from Erick’s hand, toward the Illusion Shade, and that Shade easily stepped to the side, only moving a handspan out of the way.

Erick’s soft white lightning continued on to the red-eyed leviathan around the Lightning Shield, touching black scales and causing the creature distress—

The Illusion Shade watched Erick, while Erick’s lightning continued to course through the air, striking the leviathan, who snarled and raged and launched—

Erick pumped up the power quite a lot. An enraged beast became a very dead beast. The leviathan fell to the water’s surface like so much mushroom-growing meat.

Erick just smiled, and said, “Now! Whoever is turning time back again and again to try and make this meeting of the minds turn out poorly, I would like to announce that I can do a lot worse than that.” Erick turned toward Verrod. “You were saying something about proving myself, or something. Apologies. I was trying to figure out who was fucking with me through Time. If you could, please repeat the question.”

Verrod smirked a little, and it wasn’t meant to be menacing at all. “I was asking you to prove yourself as powerful and worthy of My God’s Eye. I suppose I will accept that nice little display and the physical Eye you wear around your neck as proof enough.” Verrod added, “But I must ask. Is He giving the Shield back to that false goddess?”

“That is the plan. It’s a gesture of goodwill.”

Many of the Shades at the party were disheartened by that, but only a few were furious. The one who tried to Destroy Erick was rather miffed. But he said nothing.

Verrod frowned a little. “I suppose… I suppose we must abide, for we are but instruments of His workings. And yet…” He Looked at Erick, and Erick felt like he was gazing at the Sky Itself for a vast moment. Verrod spoke with authority, “All the gods are false, Wizard of Not-Lightning, especially that Lightning Ghost. For you to give thatone power over lightning is odd to me. You would be better served with taking this Shield for yourself. The world would be better served without her grip on Lightning Magic, strangling all Those Who Aspire.”

Erick felt a strange sort of kinship in that moment. He smiled softly, and said, “I fully understand what you are saying, Verrod. Believe me; I know what you mean.”

“… Strangely enough, I feel that you do. And yet…” Verrod’s voice shrunk as his persona and person once again became the size of his physical body, instead of the size of the sky. “And yet, you would still give her back her Shield?”

“I will give her back her Shield,” Erick said, not lying at all.

For a long moment, Verrod said nothing.

By then, the first of the new dead leviathans struck the waters of the lake, like meat striking the ground in wet thumps, splattering out mushrooms and spores all across the surface of the Abyssal Lake. The sky was filled with falling drops of light, and with spreading nebulae.

Verrod lifted his hand and the Lightning Shield broke through its Abyssal Bubble shield and shot to his grip. He handed it to Erick.

Erick took the shield—

Purodhalia spiked his way toward Erick, slowly and securely. In a moment the very large black spiker stood almost over Erick. In the smallest, cutest voice, he asked, “Up! Up! Take me.”

Erick secured the shield on his left wrist with an easy flicker of power —Erick shivered as the Shield seemed to harmonize with him— as he let out his Benevolence to wrap Purodhalia up, along with Quilatalap. With a bunch of Shades looking their way, and with Verrod giving one final nod, Erick benevolencestepped into the air, zapping his small group up and away.

High in the sky above the Abyssal Lake, Erick cast his gaze wide across the city of Ar’Kendrithyst.

The Dead City had always looked rather beautiful, in a dangerous sort of way. Today was no different. The crystals of the city were red and purple and filled with shadows, but they were also bright pink on some edges here and there, and deep blue in some shadowed parts, and the sky bridges always had a certain charm to them.

He liked it better under Anhelia’s reconstruction.

Thunder rolled across the world, almost triumphant in its sound—

– – – –

— And Erick stepped down onto solid stone…

Eh?

For a surreal moment, Erick wasn’t sure where he was. But then he remembered. He looked back behind him. There was the portal to the Shadow Dungeon. Ahead lay the uninhabited city that Quilatalap was building with its many apartment buildings and enough infrastructure to support millions of people, when those millions of people showed up. That city was built up and down, with sky bridges of its own, almost like a building district in a wrought Geode city, like Ar’Kendrithyst…

And Darkness lay beyond everything. There was no sky; there was only Black. They were in the heart of the dungeon, and Erick wasn’t sure how they had gotten here. Where did the line lay between the Shield Breaking, and this place?

Purodhalia had no such concerns for ordered reality. The Black Spiker just rolled away, across the dirt and through a field of golden wheat, straight into the Darkness surrounding the dungeon. He crashed into the Black, and vanished.

“I would normally be worried that Purodhalia had killed himself rushing into the Dark like that, but if anyone can survive the Dark, it is him.” Erick turned toward Quilatalap. “So. Something tells me we weren’t supposed to exit here?”

“No. We were not. Something got switched somewhere…” Quilatalap gazed across the field, at the city. Some people were walking out of the city. Quilatalap frowned deeply, and Erick felt the same way. “What are they doing here?” Quilatalap stepped forward and Erick was right there with him as the big man said, “If they have done something to Vanya and Soltic, then I will be rather angry. I ask for your backup on this, Erick.”

Erick said, “You have it. If you do not mind, though, I would ask to lead this charge.”

“Granted,” Quilatalap said, his anger barely contained. “They should not be here and the fact that they are… If they have done something untoward I will rip them apart and put them back together. Hear me, Erick: There is absolutely no way that they are here through any means but violent ones.”

“… Are you sure?” Erick asked, wanting Quilatalap to be exaggerating.

“I am sure… Though if all they have harmed are my guardians that I can put back together, then I… I can control this anger.”

Erick nodded, relief flowing a little.

Erick strode forward a little faster, to take the lead. The two of them walked down a beaten road between fields of golden wheat, toward one of the few people whom Erick was not sure how to deal with right now.

Tiza Nindi, the owl shifter Head Priestess of Sininindi, walked down the road toward them, looking triumphant in the white raiment of a Storm Priestess. The ‘plan’ had been to hand the Lightning Shield off to her outside the dungeon, in a small ceremony under the cloudy sky. Erick expected Sininindi to appear and for Tiza to be publicly pleasant, but inwardly storming. This, right here, was the opposite of what Erick wanted.

If she wanted the Shield right now then she could go fuck herself.

Tiza wasn’t alone. Two others walked with her.

The one on the left was Sailor Asmus, of the Blue Temple, which was located directly on Everbless’ cove. He was a human man with some demi in him for sure, with those red eyes of his. He looked kinda reserved and official, in those blue robes. The man had tried to set himself up to be helpful when Erick was Soltic, and Quilatalap was Vanya, but Erick and Quilatalap had never seen the need to speak to the man for any assistance at all. He was the leader of the ‘mortal’ counterpoint to Sininindi’s Church; the one who people went to for what Erick would consider more logistical problems upon the seas; the problems of sailors, not the problems of priests.

Tiza’s priesthood was the ‘real’ Church of Sininindi. Asmus led ‘boat tours’, according to his detractors.

The third person was Oozy Stormcaller, which was really fucking odd.

Erick hadn’t seen the gangly red-haired man in a while, and here he was, wearing the pale blue robes of a Blue Temple initiate. What was he doing with Sininindi’s logistics church? What was he doing here—

White lightning flickered around Oozy’s neck.

It was a ring of Benevolence.