Ilyz sat in his hut. It was a rather large hut, and he arguably had the best view of the village below. He hadn’t asked for the view to look over them all, but it had happened naturally, as was expected. They thought him as an elderly elf, wise in the ways of the fractured world. An immortal race all but gone, him the last of his kind. Oh how close to the truth, yet so very far from it it was. No one in the village knew who or what he truly was, and they would never know.

After the great fracture had happened, he had vowed to stop meddling in the affairs of mortals. Obviously he couldn’t help it completely, hence his position in this village, but he tried to hold back. The village was filled with an odd mix of species, they could ill afford to be speciest now. Humans, dwarfs, half-elves, lizardfolk, half-beasts and other species roamed the village of a thousand. Of course it was small, he remembered the vast cities of yore, built on magic and technology both. Oh how he regretted not having joined the colony in space back then.

The fractured world had but small incomplete pieces of the old world, civilization set back thousands of years. Technology had all but disappeared as they were all back to the age of swords yet again. They were stuck here anyway, deep within the field of myriad of pieces. Despite the thousand of years he had stayed here, civilization had barely progressed since the great cataclysm.

Of course, because he had promised not to meddle, he had barely given any hints to help them with their natural technological advancement. Even so, progress was almost nonexistent. It should have gone forwards far faster, if not for the dangers of this world culling their numbers time and time again. Levels and knowledge lost at each death, setting them back again and again.

Ilyz was tired of it all, but he had seen it all before. Or so he liked to tell himself. The truth was that he was old. Far older than most in the village would believe. He had been around for thousands of years before the great fracture, and he had been jaded by it all because nothing had truly changed for so long, he had all but given up. He should have been more careful in his wishes, as in the era before the great fracture, something unexpected had happened.

Technology and magic had somehow co-existed and brought their civilization to new heights he hadn’t even fathomed. He had thought he had seen it all, after all, his species was one of the first, or so they believed. And after seeing countless empires rise and fall, seeing the world change again and again in a repeated cycle had made more than one of them jaded to the future. It had seemed to them the future only held more of the same.

But this time it had been different. They had gone through the stars to distant places. So far even his brothers and sisters couldn’t have done it. The worst part was that it had happened once he had stopped meddling in mortal affairs, and he knew of no other that had meddled either. And he had looked, believed that something must have helped make this time different, but it was not so. Sometimes fate was cruel, as they were wont to say, and he had not been an exception.

The world had changed so much that day, but he didn’t want to think about it. Or what had happened after it. His one regret was that he stayed behind, thinking foolishly that he could still stop whatever was going on. How naive, how arrogant. But that was his nature. Even now, he meddled, trying to help despite knowing the futility of his ways. For only when he had stopped had they soared to true heights. And he envied them. He envied their wild aspirations, for he was too old and too jaded to have them any longer.

So he sat, in his hut, cross legged as he overlooked the village with a scrying spell. He had anchored it ten meters above his hut to see all of what happened below. It was also the reason he knew someone would disturb him soon enough. A young half-elf was climbing the stairs up his steep hill, she brought food, water and hopefully a request for help. He was bored out of his mind.

Before she arrived at his hut, he checked his position on the central matt where he sat cross legged, like a sage of old. He fixed his posture so his back was straighter and closed his eyes like he was meditating. As she came up to the hut, and before she knocked, he spoke.

“Come in child.” He said in a soothing voice, pleased by her surprise as she came in shyly.

“Greetings master Ilyz.” She said as she bowed to him. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at her. A child barely twenty, so young and naive in the ways of the world. A mortal that would die and wither of age before he could blink, but so beautiful in her ambitions and dreams, something he had long lost.

“Imena, I hope all is well?” He raised a brow knowingly. There was something fundamentally fun about playing the old all knowing sage, and he did know everything that happened around here.

“I am deeply sorry to bother you at this time, but an unknown fracture is getting closer. It is filled with death and monsters. The village chief is afraid we might not make it without your help.” She pleaded in a submissive tone, head bowed. He was happy they had decided to ask for his help. He had seen it and knew they would probably be able to fend off the horde, but the amount of dead would set them back tremendously, possibly generations.

“I am pleased the village asks for my help for such dire problems. As promised generations ago, I will help you yet again.” He said as he got up. He was clearly taller than she had thought as he towered over her a good one and a half head.

“At your convenience, master Ilyz.” She bowed her head once more as she left some food and water by his door. Of course he didn’t need to eat. That was something for mortals to do, but he did enjoy it from time to time. That wasn’t really the point, the point was to make the village think they could somehow repay him somewhat for his help. They all knew it wasn’t much, but it was a lot better than nothing, and why he had had to retry this village thing thrice before he got the hang of it.

It had seemed that people simply couldn’t stand being given everything without paying anything back without it making them completely rotten. Everyone knew a spoiled child was horrendous to their parents, or whoever spoiled it. But as he had discovered, it wasn’t the spoiling that was the problem, but the fact that the child gave nothing back. It could be anything, really, like helping his parents with the chores, but something had to be given back, or it would always, always make a rotten child otherwise.

The same was true for a village. Being unduly generous had… spoiled his first attempt. It had been a terrible sight when he had lost his temper, and he had regretted it. But it had to be done. The second time he gave less, helped less, but still, they soon turned against him, why he hadn’t understood, until a child of all things, the last survivor, had made him understand the folly of his way.

“Do you truly think yourself above us? Maybe it was folly to go against you, but I for one do not regret anything. I would rather die as an equal than squirm at your feet.” The young man had told him, fist clenched white. And for a second he had thought about it himself.

If someone had come and given him everything he needed at every turn, would he have liked that person? Ancestors no. That would both ruin the fun and the challenge of life. He would learn nothing as he wouldn’t make any mistakes, but most of all, he wouldn’t have anything to do, or anything to challenge himself with.

The worst part was it had been a lesson he had thought he had learned long ago. Apparently it had been so long ago it had somehow slipped his mind. And so, on his third try, he had changed his approach. He wanted to help, but he could not hamper their growth, or truly stand above them, like a perfect protector. No, he had to let them go through their lives with all of their trials and tribulations helping them grow and level up.

But also, he had to accept their help back, at least in parts. So he had started to ask for food and water to be delivered to his house. He even asked for entertainment sometimes, which most often than not fell short, but it had been necessary for the balance of help given, to ask for some back.

Lost in thought as he had been, he only now realized that the young half-elf was still standing outside his hut, waiting for him as he had gotten up. Not wanting to show he was embarrassed, he took a deep breath and confidently started to walk down.

As he came down, he saw that most of the village was assembled and all bowed to him once. Looking up, he saw countless pieces of land floating in a magical sea of mana and magic. Some seemed to phase in and out of existence, or a sharp line that seemed to start a new reality. Of course, this was all due to the wild magic playing tricks on the light that came through. But it made navigating it tough for sure as it was hard to see where you were going.

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He missed the blue skies though. The peaceful sky and starry night with two beautiful moons. How he longed to see that or a normal sky, but there was no way to leave this place, even for him. Of course he knew about space travel and the challenges that came with it, but as much as he was magically gifted, as was natural for his species, he hadn’t paid close enough attention to the technology developed for true space travel, and despite his enormous mana pool, he knew he would survive at most a week in space. He wouldn’t get far at all with the paltry speed he could manage, for distances in space were on another magnitude altogether compared to planetary travel.

Looking back down, he saw the hopeful faces of the villagers greeting him. Of course some of them were rather high level, but it was nothing compared to his might. He nodded to them and one of the scouts gently directed him towards the right road. He walked after him and looked down at the road. Road was a generous term. It was a dirt road. There weren’t enough stones on this piece of land.

He spotted the only forest of the land to the right. There was vegetation in the other directions, but not truly a forest. He could almost see the end of the land from here, as it was barely more than twenty kilometers to the edge. The village was in the center, as far away from the edge as possible, which was only sensible. All manners of things could come over the edges.

They walked for about five minutes at a leisuring pace. They hadn’t gone into the forest, but towards a small hill to the left of it. It wasn’t a mountain in any sense of the word, but it was the tallest point in the land. They slowly crested the hill, up and up. Of course he already knew where they were going. He had seen the other piece of land slowly float towards them. Still, he hadn’t said anything and had let them discover the threat by themselves.

Contrary to their piece that was fairly balanced in terms of nature and everything, this one was overrun by what looked to be strange vegetation. It clearly wasn’t anything he had encountered before, and he had seen all of what the old world had to offer, meaning this was a mutated plant that had fed off the magic for eons. And amidst the vegetation, he could see hundreds of red eyes, looking at them from above.

It was always strange to him, who had lived in a normal world, to see a piece of land floating above his head, blotting out what he always thought would be a normal sky, only to be greeted by strange pieces of land and magic mingling in a confusing pattern that simply didn’t make sense. He could see that the top of the hill would eventually touch the other piece, or come close enough to cross, which is what the scouts had already concluded, and with the amount of eyes that were clearly looking down at them, this would have been a rather hard fight, if they had to fight off the horde without him.

He began muttering and moving as he got close enough to the top, magic slowly swirling around him. He made a lot of extra movements and a show of it. If they understood how easy magic was for him, and the breadth of his strength, he was afraid that they would seek his aid too much and hamper themselves.

So he made a show of it, making nonsense gestures and useless magic swirl around him in a slow but growing crescendo. The beady red eyes above were looking hungrily at him, almost close enough to jump from one gravity to another, while he chanted and danced, sweat starting to appear. It was all a show so far, for he could cast the required magic as easily as turning his hand; magic was in his very nature. And despite it all, he was one of the few beings left in existence that didn’t have a class or level. He was probably the last of his race, or so he believed.

His fake ritual was coming to a close as the monsters were getting closer, some of them already trying to jump across, only for gravity to pull them back, but some of them almost seemed to pause at their zenith, as if the world was unsure which gravity it belonged to. It wouldn’t take much longer before they would cross in the hundreds and maybe thousands.

The very earth around the top rumbled as it looked as if it was made of flowing water, changing shape as swiftly as any liquid in unruly waves, eager to do his bidding. Some of the monsters finally made it across, they looked like rabid wolves crossed with a porcupine. The ‘hairs’ on their back, long and pointy along with a smaller and prolonged snout. Ugly is what they were, and clearly stupid as they fell from above in a trickle at first. The trickle soon changed to a torrent of unending monsters, pouring down from the other piece of adjacent land in the sky.

The waves of earth were larger now, encompassing the whole top of the hill, swirling dangerously and getting closer and closer to the monsters. Some of them didn’t heed the danger and tried to jump over them to freedom, only for the wave to react and drag them down. Contrary to any other liquid, the earth soon crushed them under its weight and blood and bones could be heard getting violently crushed. More and more had tried, but all had met the same fate. A few of the monsters, smarter than their brethren, were trying to back away, but there was nowhere to go, new waves were slowly picking up and closing in on the center, changing the whole top of the hill into a meat grinder.

To his surprise, the stupid monsters used the unending tide and unwilling sacrifices of their brothers to escape. A pile of bodies was getting engulfed into the grinder, but some started to escape as they jumped on their brothers flesh and bones. Still, it was only a few for a hundred dead, so he continued to maintain the main spell.

Obviously he could have cast another spell to clean up everything, but he knew a few stragglers wouldn’t be a problem for the warriors that had followed them. They soon set to work and pounced on the ugly creatures. As always, they started cautiously. It was wise as they had never encountered this species before, and might never again.

Many were unique to their piece of land, and would die by the next time their pieces met again. That or they would have mutated enough to be considered another species. He still didn’t understand why some pieces had such volatile mutations and some others, like the one they were on, seemed much more stable.

But that was for him to ponder on another day. The warriors were done prodding the monsters. They fought with claws and teeth, their backs were hard to piece thanks to their spiky fur that could easily block a sword or spear, but their underbelly was their obvious weakness. The warriors gained confidence and started being more aggressive. Alas, it didn’t take long for them to be surprised by the monsters. Despite their caution, they hadn’t been patient enough.

One of the monsters got struck in its exposed belly, only for it to roll into itself and explode, sending all of its spiky fur in all directions. Only a few were wounded, but it was enough to slow them down enough to be a problem. More and more monsters had accumulated. They were escaping faster than the warriors were killing them.

A lightning bolt came down and struck two of the monsters who whimpered, one of the [Shamans] from the village stood behind the warriors. Proud and defiant of this threat. The warriors' attacks resumed, and they were fiercer and more aggressive than before. Four of them covered each other perfectly as one of the monsters rushed out from a blind spot. A clear usage of a leadership skill. Probably [Coordinated Attack] or another similar skill. He hadn’t seen who had used it, but it didn’t matter.

He saw the trickle of monsters slow down as they looked down on the meat grinder below them, or above them depending on what perspective you took. There were still a lot of them, but even stupid as they were, they knew it was a lost cause. Still, he had to keep the spell up, just in case they decided to resume their assault, so the waves of earth continued, blending the corpses of the monsters into a grotesque mix of earth, blood and bones.

He kept it up for another thirty minutes as the warriors looked on, ever vigilant, and at some point, he faked weakness and fell to a kneeling position, like he was struggling to keep the magic up. It was long enough for the other fractured lands to pass them by. Obviously this was nothing for him, but again, he knew showing almighty strength would only lead to bad things in the long run.

Of course they would praise and love him at first, should he show them his true power. They always did. But as they understood that they had nothing to offer him, nothing to give him, they would soon resent his help, until one day they would try to get rid of him. It took time of course, but he was happy here, to see this village grow under his protection. He didn’t want to try again. It was the first, and only village above a thousand people that he knew of in these broken lands that they all lived in.

There were some others, but all were smaller. Far smaller than this one. He looked around the village as he came back and admired it. It had grown despite the hostile place they lived in, of course thanks to him in parts, but also simply due to their own strength. It was something he admired and wanted to encourage, which was another incentive not to help them too much.

He slowly made his way up to his hut, the young half-elf bowed and thanked him for his help as others started to come up and lavished him with gifts of food and other trinkets. Day turned to night, the strange sky darkening despite the amount of magic. He thought that the sun’s rays might still be responsible for the light, even deep within this rubble of the old world as they were, or so he said. But he secretly suspected otherwise, and the reason for many of the strange sights in this land. The reason why the world had broken was a strong hint.

For a whole week, the villagers celebrated this great help and victory, as he feigned weakness at the expended magic, feasting upon their offerings to regain his lost strength. It was a bit of a silly game, but a necessary one. And one week later, he saw someone from another village come, as they were wont to do from time to time, and he couldn’t help but listen in with a spell as he saw the surprised faces of the others he talked to.

“Travelers have come to our lands, we seek the wisdom of master Ilyz, could you grant us an audience?” The minotaur asked the village chief. Travelers? They were becoming more rare every year, and never did they bring anything good with them.