MAGUS INFINITE

I stood in the crater, the silence stretching between us. He had given me his answer, and I understood it, even if I did not like it.

”That is a convenient justification,” I said aloud, no longer bothering to hide the disgust and anger in my heart, but he did not look annoyed; in fact, there was an understanding light in his eyes that was pissing me off.

”It is,” he agreed without much fanfare. ”Still, that does not make it untrue.”

I shook my head, becoming too pissed off to care that he was a Sovereign. ”You are willing to let millions die for what? Freaking clarity. I am sorry, but in my books that is not a strategy; that is an excuse to do nothing while the world burns.”

”An excuse to do nothing?” His eyes flickered; finally, it seemed I was able to reach him, and his frame was breaking. ”You are a child; what do you know? Power like yours should not be in the hands of a child; you should have lived for centuries, and the true realities of life should have been opened to you before you held this power, but it is not your fault. I have been doing nothing for three thousand years. I have been watching, waiting, and calculating. I have held the line while the rot spread, since striking too early would have meant losing everything. Do you understand what it means to wait for three thousand years, knowing that every day you wait, the enemy grows stronger, and you can do nothing because the moment you act, you will be branded a traitor and destroyed?”

I did not answer, not because I was afraid or I thought I was wrong, but I was realizing that the same situation could be judged differently by two people, and oddly enough, both of them would be right.

”I have buried friends who died in their beds, not because I could not save them, but because saving them would have revealed what I knew. I have watched students rise and fall, carrying the seeds of the Conclave’s poison in their souls, and I have said nothing, because I know that saying something would have warned the enemy that I was watching.” He took a step closer, and I felt the heat of his presence press against my soul. ”Do not speak to me of doing nothing, boy. I have done more than you can imagine, and I have done it in silence, for longer than you can conceptualise. You have been given great power, but you have not earned it, and you cannot imagine how careful I have to be, or else all would be lost.”

The weight of his words pressed down on me, and for a moment, I saw the shape of what he had endured. A thousand lifetimes of watching the enemy grow stronger, of waiting for the moment when the rot would finally show itself. I did not agree with his methods, but I understood them.

Was it because I had the loop, and so endless opportunities to tackle a problem, that I began to disregard what it might mean to have only one chance to manage a situation?

How many times did I allow my friends and my family to die, knowing that I could do nothing, because whatever was happening was too big for me to make any changes? I had fought, cried, and died over and over again, and I was the only one with this privilege. Did I truly have the right to judge Sovereign Caldus for watching the continent burn so he could stop the Conclave, once and for all?

I was conflicted, and I did not know what to say, clearly, I did not agree with his methods, but that did not matter in the long run, the truth was that no matter what happened, I was the one who was given a World Quest, and because I had seen a Sovereign, for a moment, I wanted to drop this load and ask him for his aid... it was only natural, there was so much I did not know or understand, and he should have the answers to save everybody.

But I was coming to terms with the fact that even someone as powerful as a Sovereign was helpless against what was to come, and this should not disappoint me, but be the fuel for my growth.

”What do you want from me?” I whispered. My mind was no longer here; I wanted to learn more about the war and enter the Caelith to understand the new tool before me. I was wrong to look to a Sovereign for salvation... this burden is still mine to carry.

He looked at me, and he nodded. ”You are a good child, Elric, and it should not be your place to make these decisions, but the hands of fate had settled over your head, and surprisingly, you were capable enough to hold your ground. You bore the weight of an Elemental Aegis outside the halls of Aldenmere, so it means your strength of mind is ridiculous for someone so young.”

Sovereign Caldus must have seen the question in my eyes as he nodded, ”An Elemental Aegis descends when your soul crystallises at the Arcanist level, and normally, a Mage would have to be within the Academy to survive it. This is how we preserve the order of the world, by ensuring that the remnants of the godly infidels do not seize our powers and become too strong. So, this Celestial structure must have aided you in reducing the intensity of the Tribulation descent; this already makes it invaluable to us and...”

Sovereign Caldus stopped speaking, and he frowned, and I felt it a half-second after he did, as what I suspected to be his domain, the sky full of fire that covered us, began to sag, as if something enormous had walked into the edge of his domain and begun leaning on it.

My eyes widened as I turned to the Caelith... that sneaky bitch. When the Pale Matron was busy cursing me, she must have been summoning the other parts of her body.

”Boom!”

I staggered as the ground shook, but Sovereign Caldus did not even shake as his feet smoothly left the ground and he hovered an inch above it. The sky was being twisted, and it seemed that it was still holding steady, but the ground...

”Boom!”

... was the weakest part of this entire equation.

The sound that shook the earth was deep and almost unhurried, but it began to increase in frequency as if there were multiple giants outside the domain, tearing their way into the earth.

Caldus turned his head slowly toward the northern horizon, and his eyes glowed. ”Is that the prisoner this Celestial structure held captive?”

I nodded. ”Parts of her; the rest are still slumbering under the other Caeliths, but these ones are awake, and they are coming to destroy it, or failing to do that, throw it out of the planet.

Sovereign Caldus turned to me, and he growled, ”Throw outside the planet? How do you know this?”

”Um, I sort of pushed back this Caelith when it was pushed outside the planet by one of the arms of the demon that I have imprisoned inside.”

Sovereign Caldus shook his head, ”That is madness; no one survives leaving this world, not even a Sovereign...”

Whatever he wanted to say was lost as the ground in the distance exploded and nine massive white shapes began to wiggle out of the earth like gigantic snakes.