Upon reuniting, the group showed off what they had acquired. Sylvie was suitably impressed by the Soul Pearl. Braveheart preened as she showed Rai her new necklace, which was just a piece of green coral on a string. Sylvie also had a new necklace made of shells.
“And these are for you, from both of us!” Sylvie said with an eager smile.
“Is… is this a new belt?” Rai said, holding up the thin black belt.
“Yes! If you put a sword in it, it creates a sheath!”
“That way I could openly carry my weapon even in normal clothes without having to be holding it. Thank you! That must have used a lot of your funds.”
“I wanted to thank you both. Without you, I’d be dead on the streets.”
Isa held up the pearl necklace – regular white pearls the size of peas.
“That’s not magical,” Sylvie said. “I couldn’t afford magical jewelry for you.”
Isa smiled. “I’m touched, Sylvie.”
“I thought about getting you something warrior-related, but… you’re a pretty woman, and you don’t really have any pretty jewelry. All your rings and stuff are for utility purposes. So… I figured… you could show off your feminine side with this!”
Isa ruffled Sylvie’s hair, careful not to scratch her with her claws. “Thank you.”
“Well… let’s go get dinner,” Rai said. “I know it’s a bit early, but the this city has some good fish-related food and we need to celebrate together. We have everything we need for the ritual now, so the only things we have left are to get manuals from Arcanius and figure out how to get home.”
They went to an outdoor restaurant at water level that was half submerged so humans and merfolk could both patronize the establishment. Sylvie thought it was great fun to be sitting on a seat that was below the water level while they ate, but as they reached the end of the meal, she started getting pensive.
“Something bothering you, Sylvie?” Rai asked.
“…Master asked me to keep a secret from you a long time ago, but I don’t think I can do it anymore.”
“A secret?” Isa said questioningly.
“He… he thinks he has a guess for how you might be able to get home.”
Isa’s eyes narrowed. “And he told you what that guess was?”
“I’m sorry! I wanted to tell you, but he told me not to!”
“We’re not upset at you, Sylvie,” Rai said, reaching out and patting her head. “We might be angry at him, but we’re not mad at you. What did he say his guess was?”
“He said he thinks that if you bring all the star shards together in the same place where the original ritual was, that they might resonate and reverse the initial effect, bringing you back home.”
“That almost seems too simple,” Isa said.
“That’s what I said, but he thinks there’s a high chance of it working.”
“Well, we’ll just have to talk to him about it,” Rai said. “Without hostility,” he added, looking pointedly at Isa.
“Yeah, well, maybe he owes us those manuals for keeping that from us.”
“I don’t disagree, but remember that he’s been extremely helpful to us – and that he’s still a ninth circle mage. He could easily kill us both.”
“I could take him.”
“Isa!”
“Yeah, fine. I’ll be polite. We do owe him our gratitude for what he’s done, and he’s also been a great tutor for Sylvie. I don’t hate him; I’m just irritated.”
“So am I. That’s a serious thing to keep from us.”
“Are… are you sure you’re not mad at me?”
“We’re not mad at you,” Isa said with a reassuring smile. “I promise.”
They finished eating, paid, and returned to the Thunder Isles Tower. Isa immediately confronted Arcanius.
“So what’s this about your guess for how we return to our time?” she said accusingly.
The ancient man sighed. “So she finally told you, did she? I’m surprised she was able to keep the secret this long. She’s a good girl, trying to do right by everyone involved. First, I’m not going to apologize. I’m not completely certain it will work, though I feel there is a high likelihood of success. However, I was still studying the shards for the God of Knowledge, and I felt my patron deity would prefer I continue to study. Now that you know, however, I see no reason to withhold access to the shards. If you still want those manuals, though…”
“I think you should give us those manuals as an apology.”
“I think you’re getting a bit too entitled, girl. After everything I’ve done for you, you have the gall to demand things of me?”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Isa, please don’t,” Rai said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I’m unhappy with him, too, but he’s not entirely wrong. Technically, he was under no obligation to tell us his theory, and it’s not like he interfered with our own search.”
“Hypothesis.”
“What?”
“A theory is more or less confirmed and explains phenomena. A hypothesis needs to be tested and is a supposition. It’s an important distinction.”
Rai stared at him.
“You really think that’s the important thing here?”
“Proper terminology is always important.”
Rai’s calm façade cracked. “Arcanius, I don’t think you understand how upset we are at you. We’ve been searching for a way back for months, and you’ve allowed us to go on this wild goose chase when you think you have the answer. It feels like a betrayal. I… I want to get home, to my own era, so that I can resurrect my beloved. I’ve been waiting for seven years for this. I’m so close it hurts, and you’ve been withholding the last piece of the puzzle.”
“Hm. I suppose I can see why you see it that way. Very well. Give me a moment.”
Arcanius disappeared. When he reappeared half an hour later, he had what appeared to be a Record Tetra in his free hand.
“This contains my entire compilation of qi core cultivation methods, mana circle creation methods, and combat arts of various different styles. It also contains a curated selection of, in my opinion, the best spells of each circle. Finally, it also contains most of my personal research with regard to medicine, alchemy, enchanting, and artificing. This is my legacy, in case the Tower does not survive the cataclysm. I entrust it to you. However, it will not all be immediately available. For each Tower you visit, more of the information will unlock… but this feature will only start working after one month has passed from when you claim ownership.”
“To encourage me to continue my archeological work?”
“Correct. Despite your travels, you have only seen a small part of the world of this era, catching the barest glimpses of its splendor. You must strive to keep learning… for you are a scholar.”
“I understand. And… thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, it’s time for you to collect all the fragments together and return to Plentira. I don’t know if the shard you left with them is necessary, but I’d collect it anyway. Then, get permission to use the room where the original ritual will take place.”
Rai nodded, taking the Tetra.
“It’s time to return home.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
-x-
“So it might not even work?” Nara said.
Rai nodded. “But Archmage Arcanius believes that it probably will, so it’s definitely worth a try.”
“I see,” Floran said. “So this is goodbye for good this time.”
“It’s a pity I’ll never get to see Braveheart again,” Exija said.
“You’ll be taking your drakes and apprentice with you, I assume,” Aurelia said.
“Yes, we will,” Isa agreed.
“I’ve had the room completely cleared, which took a bit of doing, but we’re ready to watch you be whisked away,” Diamant said. “You have all the star fragments; now we just need to go to the room.”
The room was much as Rai remembered it, a large circle with a dozen pillars arranged around the center. It looked more pristine and not at all age-worn, but other than that it was the same. He led his companions to the center while the observers all gathered at the edge.
Rai took out all the shards in their containment jars and set them down in the middle of a ring formed by his companions.
“Moment of truth,” he whispered.
He slashed with his sword, shattering all the jars at once.
The reaction was immediate. The star fragments leapt out of their broken containers and slammed into one another, glowing with a bright green aura. They continued to press harder and harder against one another. They cracked, then fused, and then…
They collapsed in on themselves, forming a rapidly growing black sphere. Wind began to rush in toward it, sucked up in the black hole in space.
“Now!” Rai shouted.
They linked themselves together and rushed forward. They lurched off the ground and hurtled into the hole. The sphere pulsed, then stopped growing. It pulsed again.
“Is that… permanent?” Nara said cautiously.
The black sphere pulsed a third time, shrank rapidly to the size of a pea, then vanished into nothingness.
-x-
Standing amidst clouds on the surface of a crystal clear lake, three divine avatars formed a triangle, facing the image of the black sphere as it pulsed, played forward in extremely slow motion. One avatar appeared as an old human man with a wispy white beard that fell all the way to his feet, wearing spectacles and a flowing black robe speckled with stars. The second took the form of a young elven woman wearing the short white robes, her golden hair – filled with flowers – reaching to the surface of the lake. The third was a centipede of similar size to the others, with red carapace and black legs. The old man closed his eyes and let out a breath before opening them again.
“So this is what a hole in time itself looks like,” he said.
“So it would seem,” the woman replied. “At least it destroyed the star fragments. My heart weeps to know that the day will come when the stars fall, and the world will be poisoned.”
“But the world will survive,” the centipede said. “It will recover, if slowly. I will count the people and the days.”
There was a flash of light, and another avatar appeared: a towering humanoid man with three pairs of white wings and bronzed skin, surrounded by the glow of the sun.
“Knowledge,” he said, addressing the old man, “you allowed this, despite our agreement. I was to have access to these star fragments for my own use once you had studied them. Explain yourself.”
“The power of the stars is dangerous for gods to handle,” the old man said. “The filtering process that was developed allows mortals to handle stellar energy safely, but it does not protect divine entities. Furthermore, attempting to use the stars draws unwanted attention.”
“Unwanted attention?” the winged man scoffed. “We’re gods! What could possibly threaten us? Even the greatest of demons merely challenge our servants, not us.”
“That arrogance will be your undoing, Sun.”
“Arrogance? I merely state the facts!”
“…Have you never wondered why there is no god of the stars?”
“It is your job to govern knowledge, not mine. Why should I care?”
“Because there is another entity out in the void, one whose nature is unknown to even me. I fear that should we provoke it, it will cause the catastrophe. I have not yet given up hope on preventing that.”
“Hah! See if I listen to you again, you deceitful snake! God of Knowledge… more like God of Lies!”
The winged man vanished. The old man frowned.
“He will resort to drastic measures. The Black Sun Starfall… corruption, possession, or even death… I have my suspicions that the God of the Sun known to the mortals from the future is not the same as the one we know. Too much is different in their attitudes.”
“You think that Sun will be destroyed?” the woman said in surprise.
“It is mere suspicion. The educated intuition of one exposed to vast amounts of knowledge. However, if I am right… we may have just witnessed the start of his downfall.”
The centipede shifted. “We must prepare,” it said. “We must inform the other gods.”
“I already have,” the old man said. “Before we started this meeting. I foresaw Sun’s actions. We shall do our utmost to prevent the catastrophe, but we must be prepared for it as though it were inevitable. For if one god can die…”
“So too can others,” the woman finished.
-x
Rai watched as the scene around him changed from the meeting of the gods to something else. The God of the Sun stood at the head of a group of other gods in a black void, facing off against the God of Knowledge and the God of Medicine (or goddess, he supposed), who also had a group of gods behind them. Around them, massive colored, glowing rocks as big as houses floated in the void, sporting different base colors and colors of glowing aura. He saw black with green glow, red with blue glow, blue with purple glow, purple with yellow glow, and several other combinations.
“Give it up!” the God of the Sun shouted. “We will use the stars to transform the world! We will recreate the world over again into a more suitable form!”
“You’re mad!” the Goddess of Medicine cried. “You’ve been tampering with the stars already, and it’s driven you completely mad!”
“Mad?! My mind has never been clearer! Attack!”
The two hosts clashed, and Rai was left in complete awe at the sheer scale of the power being thrown around. And these are just avatars of the gods, not the gods themselves, he thought. A battle of the gods… why am I witnessing this? When we came backward in time, it just knocked us out. Is going forward different?
“HMM?”
Rai jolted at the incomprehensible voice that seemed to twist the very mind to hear. A single, colossal eye with a multitude of pupils opened out of the void, looking right at him.
“HMM?” it said again.
The gods paused in their battle, noticing the eye. They didn’t appear to see Rai.
“What is that?!” someone cried.
A single pupil turned into a lance of darkness, somehow still visible against the black backdrop. It speared the god who had spoken.
“HMM.”
A thousand more eyes, each as big as one of the stars, opened all around the battlefield.
“Guh!” the stabbed god choked, clutching at the lance of darkness. The avatar disintegrated.
Darkness shot out from the eyes toward the gods. Many were speared; some dodged or parried the attacks. The God of the Sun cut apart an eye with a single swing.
“No matter what you are, you’ll perish!”
The remaining gods battled the eyes until only a handful of gods and the original, biggest eye were left.
“HMM.”
The eye closed, disappearing.
“Where did it go?”
It opened again, this time right next to the God of the Sun. He spun and stabbed it with his glowing yellow sword. Dozens of spears of darkness impaled him a moment later.
“Don’t get cocky,” the God of the Sun coughed. “You’ve only destroyed an avatar. I’ll be back, and… what?”
Instead of disintegrating, the avatar froze in place. The dark spears drew out light from his wounds, pulling it toward the eye.
“What? What’s happening? Grk!”
“HMM!”
The avatar popped like a soap bubble, leaving a sourceless light behind.
“Sun!” the other gods shouted. They teleported up to the eye and used body, weapon, and magic to sever the spears. The light winked out. With a cry, they attacked the eye, causing it to ooze darkness like blood.
“HMM!”
The eye closed, and did not reappear. The gods glanced at each other, then vanished.
-x-
The scene changed again in a flash of color. Gods in their avatars stood in the daytime sky, facing off against the God of the Sun, who stood alone with a black sun behind him.
“I am sorry it has come to this,” the Goddess of Medicine said. “But you have been corrupted beyond salvation. We must end you, and replace you with a new god.”
The God of the Sun raised a hand, and a red star, glowing blue, appeared above it. “When I have the power of the stars at my disposal, none can stop me,” he said, voice reverberating and distorted.
He stretched out his other hand, and a wave of blue light wiped out nearly a tenth of the avatars. The avatars reappeared a moment later.
“Do not falter!” one of the gods who had tried to save him when he fought against the Eye cried. “On my name as the God of War, I will lead us to victory!”
“I think not.”
The God of the Sun teleported in front of the God of War and stabbed him with the sword which appeared in his hand at that moment.
“You think that will be enough to stop me?” the God of War sneered.
“Yes.”
Light exploded out from the sword, vaporizing the God of War’s avatar. There was a long pause.
Then the God of War reappeared, but his avatar sported a scar where he had been stabbed. He narrowed his eyes.
“Inflicting lasting harm through an avatar… quite a terrifying ability. But it will not be enough to shake me! And I am the God of War – you’re just the God of the Sun! In combat, nobody can best me! Everyone, support me!”
The battle raged. To Rai’s eyes, it looked like they were fairly evenly matched, the other gods versus the God of the Sun, despite his access to the stars, which he flung about the aerial battlefield. As the battle went on, everyone seemed to be weakening. Finally, the God of the Sun’s avatar was destroyed, ripped apart by a magic spell.
The light that was left behind took on the form of a dragon and continued to fight. The number of gods started to drop as destroyed avatars stopped reappearing.
A sword of golden light pierced though the God of the Sun.
“…What?!”
A young man with wings of light held the sword in his hand.
“The sun is unyielding and harsh,” the young man said. “It burns, it dries, it blinds. But the sun also provides the warmth necessary for life, the light needed to see. The sun’s light should be righteous, a golden glow that casts down evil and protects the weak from the horrors that hide in the dark. You are not the God of the Sun. Not anymore. You are but a corrupted, mad, and pathetic thing that once was something great. You have abandoned your duty to the world, turning the sun black and casting down poison onto the world’s surface. The harm you have done will forever scar this world. For that, you must be destroyed.”
He slashed, and the light that was the God of the Sun dispersed and vanished. The young man flew up to the black sun and stabbed it with his sword, purifying the darkness and revealing the light once more.
“I will take up the mantle! I will become the new God of the Sun! I swear that never again will such horror be visited upon our world, for I will stand as its protector!”
The vision faded away.