As we file through the flux rift, I feel the sand shift between my boots. It's been too long since I've been here. We warped in about a mile away from Merlin to ensure he didn't sense us immediately. The march there is short, but the sun beats down on us brutally. I don't feel it, of course, but the crimson cultists groan. Leland examines his new gauntlet with awe, despite the hostile radiation from the sun. In the distance, I see the old man sitting on a stone. I hold my hand up, signaling for the cultists and golems to stop. I approach the cloaked old man, and he slowly looks up at me, clutching his staff. His left eye is missing its pupil, and instead looks like some sort of window into space.

"Are you Merlin?" I ask.

"...I didn't think there was anyone left from Primis Mundus," he says in a hoarse voice.

"What do you mean by that? What happened? I was taken from this reality in the year of 2023. If I am not mistaken, it is currently around 62024."

"Yes... in the year 2057, humans discovered a method of converting their brains into machines. They all went off into space, and left the Earth behind. I am the only one who remains."

He looks at me with a sad face for a couple of minutes. "Are you him? The one I have heard so much about? The Thaumaturge?"

"...I am." The wind blows and kicks up sand. I clench my gauntlet.

"Rumors of your exploits traveled quickly among the gods of the multiverse, considering how legendary they were. It seems they've persisted for 60,000 years... I still occasionally hear tales of a man resembling you."

"Then I assume you know why I'm here."

"Yes. I saw you coming a mile away. I just don't have any reason to run."

"Then why do any of this in the first place? Why call down the Words of Creation?"

"It's about more than just gods. My ritual using the raw power of God's manna splintered reality and created the omniverse. I knew it would happen, of course. What would you have done? Deny an infinite multitude of potential lives their chance at existing? Planets are temporary. Had I not done what I did, humanity would have ended by now and all of creation would be cold and dead. I have foreseen it." His left eye sparks.

"I see... Did you know what would result of the gods? Mass reincarnation and ruining the delicate balance between life and death? I would bet that at least 35% of people from Primis Mundus have been taken from it."

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"Sacrifices must be made sometimes."

"That's all I need to hear." I quickly throw the primal cutter at him with all of my strength. It stops an inch away from his eyes, floating midair. Impossible! No defense can stop the primal cutter!

"This is a nice spear," Merlin says. He waves his hand and it falls to the ground before flying back to my open hand. He must have stopped it telekinetically. But how could he know to do that? And I threw that spear harder than any telekinetic force vis should be able to replicate. He must still have manna fueling his spells! And in a split second, he's gone.

I frantically look around before calling the crimson cultists and golems over to me. I see him very far away. He is casting some sort of spell. The amount of vis is insane! It's at least ten thousand times anything I've seen before! The spell's effect is not apparent at first, but quickly becomes so. A state-sized meteoroid appears in orbit above us and starts to descend upon us quickly. "What the fuck!? Shortwave Cascade!" I shoot a beam through the meteor, cutting it up into as many meteorites as I possibly can. Most burn up in the atmosphere, but many still approach us. "Get close to me!" The crimson cultists huddle around me as I erect a magic barrier above and around us using my casting gauntlet. Meteorites hit the shield hard, but it holds. Once the assault ends, I take down the barrier and shout, "Charge!"

Their first serious combat experience, the crimson cultists all release adrenaline-filled shouts as they raise their weapons and begin running full speed at Merlin. The battle golems take the lead, being far more expendable. The cultists with ranged and magical weapons release missiles and energy shots alike, but Merlin easily deflects them all. He uses some sort of cleaving spell to cut many golems in half, but the energy dissipates about halfway though their ranks. I kick the ground and my boots of the traveler launch me at astounding speeds towards Merlin, but he pulls a wall of stone up from the earth into my path. With not a moment to lose, I kick the ground twice more to sidestep the stone. He launches a raging fireball at me, but even his near omnipotent spells helplessly die the moment they touch my flux. I cast my own fireball at him in turn, and he slams it with the head of his staff, converting its energy into a massive electric tornado cascading towards my army. They split down the middle to avoid it, but many cultists and golems towards the rear do not see it in time and are immolated by it. Good thing I made emergency clone bodies for them.

I continue hurtling towards Merlin at imperceivably fast speeds. Another two seconds and I've reached him. My fist collides with an extremely thick wall of steel he conjured at the last second. My arm goes through, but alas, my momentum is not enough to displace a wall of metal nearly four times as thick as a nuclear shelter's blast doors. He must realize my flux would have neutralized any magical barrier he conjured and used this to stop me from reaching him. I quickly cast a portable hole on the block of steel, giving me a straight shot at Merlin. His eyes widen with surprise.

"I did not foresee this," he says. I launch myself at him again, my fist nearly catching fire from the friction of the air.