“YOU HAVE BROKEN THROUGH TO ARCHMAGE JUST NOW, IT IS AS PLAIN AS THE SUN. YET YOUR POWER ALREADY SURPASSES THAT OF ONE...”

I bowed to Thunderbird at His comment. “Had this one the power, she could likely attempt Sagedom, Your Imperial Majesty.” I looked out over His Domain, just letting my Awareness percolate with a level of sensitivity even a Beast Emperor might find surprising in its acuity and completeness, if not its range. “This one has witnessed Your Imperial Majesty wield Thunder and Lightning, shape the Void, and mold the Wind. She has felt Water Magic that encircled the whole world. Wielding such power is not beyond this one’s comprehension, only her capacity...”

I flicked up my Shards, staring at them as they seethed and swirled with multiple Elements and energies, some of which I had brought awareness of to this world.

Also, a minimum effective Caster Level of 76!

Thunderbird regarded the many energies swirling about a basic spell taken up to just unbelievable extremes. Spell Perfection (Shards) certainly helped in many, many ways. I didn’t know why I didn’t get a Shardcaster Title or something out of it, but then considered that rains of fire were basically similar, and there were things that could cover a countryside with that level of spell. Mine certainly had great punch in a limited area, but it wasn’t like I was going to take down a city, or even a city block with them, while I could totally do so with an Archspell of Fire.

I’d long memorized all the foundational Archmagery spells, but the true power of Archmages was in them beginning to mold their own spells for unique applications that could take opponents by surprise. I was probably a lot better at that than most Archmages were, simply because I had so much foundational knowledge of what was possible, but still, time and experimentation, things for thoughtstreams to indulge in when I wasn’t actively Casting.

Those many, many Control X Element Skill Ranks didn’t go up by themselves!

When I finished with my Stars I’d have bloody over ninety thousand Mana to draw on. It was a lot, but it could start going fast if I was tossing Archmagicks out with a cost of 343 Mana per spell. Even though Archmages had some passive Mana gain, it would only suffice for Novice-level constant fire, or something.

The thought that any ‘real’ Archmage with two Galaxies would have more Mana than me, and ones with all four active potentially double that in time, was impressive to think about. Cameron Dow, for instance, was only enthusiastic about what was happening with the seas. His near-ten thousand Stars from four Galaxies meant he needed to pick up a LOT of Soul Crystals, and the seas were politely sending them forth to him!

“WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS NOW, HEALER FAE?” Thunderbird asked after a long and careful moment of analyzing my Shards. He could tell the spell could overcome even an Emperor’s resistance to magic, although whether it could punch through His feathers was a different matter.

“This one will return to Coralost, Your Imperial Majesty, and see to the empowerment of Your Baneskull Collection. Then this one will return them to Your Majesty, and go off to see Fire Phoenix Emperor, offering Him this same benefit.

“Of course, this one is at His Imperial Majesty’s disposal. Call, and I shall come!” I Promised him directly, and the Vow rang in the air with the force of its meaning.

“I AND MINE... MAY WISH TO HEAR THOSE WORDS AGAIN,” He mused aloud. “GO, HEALER FAE. I WISH YOU WELL IN YOUR PATH.”

“As His Imperial Majesty decrees!” I laughed at him, and invoked the Teleport that would carry me across the continent and back to Coralost...

==========

Thunderbird watched the track of the Void Magic jump across the horizon with a clean smoothness greater than any use of Blink He had ever used Himself. He could cover great distances with Blink, moving clear to the horizon if He had need, but Healer Fae readily cast a spell that could cover distances that only the most powerful Human Void Machines could duplicate, and she did so without apparent effort repeatedly, both to arrive at His Nest and to depart from it.

And the intensity of her magic! He had never seen the like. Even His own power did not approach it as it should, and it was nothing like the magic of any of the many Human Sages He had seen over the millennia.

It was the magic... of a Servant of Heaven.

His golden eyes turned to the sky, where clouds that were whiter than such storming things should be dotted the skies, and a strange and profound energy, more a presence than a force, seemed to dance inside the sparks of His new and enhanced Domain.

The power and presence of Heaven, come to Earth.

They had spoken of Heaven often; He desiring to know more, and she happy to speak of what Heaven meant. But the force, the place where the great and non-finite beings of Heaven should dwell, for now stood quiet and empty.

Ideas so powerful they had life and power and presence, and could even take form if they wished to, but were not bound to flesh and body as were mortals born...

Either the entities had been Warded away, or they had simply never seen this place to arrive, unlike the Axiom sponsors of the Human Synod, or the soul-grabbing and Corrupting Dark Lords of the Underworld who had stumbled across this world, lured by the shining presence of the High Emperors of the Beasts.

As for Chaos, it had no organized presence here at all, which, if what she had spoken of about the tendency of Chaos to push constant change, was very much all for the better. He had no desire to wake up some morning and find He’d grown a second head at the whim of some Chaos Realm Lord...

What He could do was invite Fire Phoenix over when Healer Fae returned with the Baneskulls she was making for Him. His old friend could see and feel what had been done here, and fly with her to His own Nest to allow her to start her work.

His great golden eyes turned to regard the vivic flame, nearly twenty feet tall, burning about the Altar atop his Pyramid. The Edifice was constantly drawing in the Dark Mana from His entire Domain, bringing it here, and Burning it away into pure Mana falling into the ground, where it was re-attuned to Earth or flowed up into the skies with the crackling bolts that snapped and thundered every so often, carried up to Air, Thunder, or Lightning, making His Realm ever richer and ever purer as it did so.

A new paradise for Beasts, where they could grow stronger than they would in the rest of the world. It was not a large Domain, only eighty miles in radius... but Healer Fae had indicated that more Pyramids could be built, that would do the exact same thing, only the Elements could be changed.

And the Dark Mana of the Underworld, returned to the cycle of Life, could be thanked for it!

THIS IS HOW THINGS SHOULD BE!, Thunderbird thought, and He spread His great dark wings, His Great Cry of triumph and elation at what had been wrought ringing out for hundreds of miles. The Beasts and Avians raised their heads to the sky and echoed the exultation of their Lord, feeling, if not understanding, that something great had indeed taken place!

--------

Harvard’s illustrious Seven Elements Hall of Magic, one of the most sought-after speaking engagements in the United States...

“...here is a partial breakdown of the spell that was used, in the terms of Magery. Keep in mind this is High Forbidden Magic, levels of Sagedom that Humans have not reached.” I flicked up the great Hologram, and new cameras that could record images of magic, courtesy of technology and patents recently trotted out by Coralost, flashed and flickered as they centered on it.

“At its Core, this is pure Water Magic. However, it draws from Ice, Void, Chaos, and Air Magic, as you can see by the Nodes here, here, here, and here,” I pointed out, as the complex arrangements flickered up in series. “By combining the magicks with a stupefying amount of magical power, a spell was Cast that literally covered the oceans and seas of the entire world. Note that the spell was Attuned to salt water, not fresh water...

“Mechanically, what happens is as follows!

“The Ice Magic transmutes a layer of Water to a lighter version of itself. This layer is extremely thin, perhaps a millimeter and less, Chaos Magic used to manipulate that thickness for broadness of range and scope. But when the area of all the sea water across the world is taken into account...

“Pressure from Void and Air Magic acts on the ‘Ice Water’, while Water Magic repulses it. The combination of effects is slowly moving the Ice Water away from the concentrations of Water Magic, and towards the lands on all sides.

“This process is not quick, unlike blatant manipulation of the tides by attacking Aquatics.” The Holo was supplemented by videos of the massive Tides in several Littoral Zones around the world, surging walls of water miles wide and up to forty feet high coming in powered by focused, powerful Aquatic efforts. “The rate of the rise is an inch a week or less... but the magic is not fading, and likely will not fade with time, although at some point the creation of the Ice Water will balance out with its dissipation, likely in about two years or so.”

“Lady Fae! Lady Fae! Does that mean we’re going to see a ten-foot rise or more in the sea level?” a reporter from the New York Post called out urgently.

“Unless the spell is broken, yes.” Ignoring the hullabaloo, a new Pattern rose behind me, replacing the partial spell of the Ice Emperor, and their questions gradually trailed off as cameras clicked and whirred.

“Behind me is a partial construction of a Ritual Magic that could counteract and undo the sea level rise. There are fine points that need to be hammered out, the biggest being the utterly massive supply of Fire, Earth, and other Mana required to undo what has been done and burn away the spell. Moreover, for optimal effect, the magic should be done on every major continent at the same time.” A map of the world flicked up, with Ritual sites on each and every one of them. Notably, they actually didn’t have to be near the shorelines so affected. “This would require the involvement of thousands of Mages, Archmages, and Sages together to work. If there is only one Ritual that goes off, the whole thing is useless, as The Great Flood will simply regenerate the effect and resume its work.” A swath of ocean about North America was swept clear of the spell... which then slowly grew back and resumed occupying the waters.

Yes, people, the damn spell even had a name!

“How do you propose to coordinate such an effort?” another attendee called out.

“I am proposing nothing. I am merely relaying what must be done. The entirety of the Magic Associations for the entire world will have to be mobilized properly to achieve this, and in all likelihood I believe self-delusion, greed, and disbelief will rule the day until the seas rise enough and the deaths pile up enough to force the issue. Certainly the countries of higher elevation, size, and more land-bound will feel far less urgency over the matter, and doubtless will seek to profit from the misfortune of wealthy nations who abut the seas.”

My tone indicated something beyond mere schadenfreude, and surprisingly, nobody interrupted me up on the podium as I went on.

“This is not the first time this has happened, of course. In the Syndic story of Noah, this is the flood that buried the world, and destroyed much of Humanity. Given the rampant number of deaths that resulted, details are very sketchy among humans, merely myths and legends, but among the Beast Kings, they naturally remember similar events having happened in the past.”

Events, plural. Those attending blinked in surprise.

“I asked Thunderbird Emperor about the history behind these events.” Eyes popped open at the very idea I could and had talked to a Beast Emperor. “He was kind enough to relate what normally happens when The Ice Emperor casts His Great Flood.”

“The main thing is that the Aquatic Tribes begin to swarm ashore and onto the land, making war and feasting upon the Beasts above the waves. In response, the Beast Kings and Emperors on the Land have little choice but to come to meet them, or the Aquatics will simply claim more and more territory, raiding and feasting upon the land.

“Said events have lasted for at least a century or more in the past, before The Ice Emperor of Antarctica withdrew His spell.”