The Manafield was in some agitation at the moment. The Ice Emperor was clearly stewing and didn’t know exactly how to handle this development. That was hardly unexpected, as He had probably planned to do little more than deliver an admonishment to an impertinent Human nevertheless doing something He thought worth doing.

This had now blown up to a much bigger thing than He had thought, and a mere Human had connections far beyond Him, while also clearly being at the heart of power in this world!

“YOU ARE DIFFICULT TO OBSERVE WHEN YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE. I CAN SEE THAT YOU HAVE THE POWER OF WHAT YOUR TRIBE CALLS A ‘SAGE’, BUT YOU HAVE NO TRUE FEELING OF THE ELEMENTS ABOUT YOU...”

“This one is indeed a Typeless Sage, Your Imperial Majesty,” I confirmed for Him. “This one is the first of my kind to follow Humanity’s magic.”

“HUMANITY’S MAGIC?...” the voice trailed off. “HUMANITY HAS ALWAYS HAD A UNIQUE ABILITY TO WIELD THE ELEMENTS AND BE TIED TO NONE OF THEM AS A SPECIES...”

“That is because Humans are naturally Typeless, or All Types, depending on how one perceives it, Your Imperial Majesty. Being bound to the Elements is the way of the Great Beasts, following in their footsteps. Being Typeless is the native magic of Humans.”

“INTERESTING. AND THUS YOUR ABILITY TO ADAPT TO SO MANY ENVIRONMENTS, HOLDING NONE AS YOUR OWN, ONLY WHERE YOU MIGHT LIVE...”

I personally thought the adaptability drove being Typeless, instead of the other way around, but sure, whatever.

“SHOW ME YOUR MAGIC, LITTLE ENVOY. I WOULD SEE THIS TYPELESS MAGIC DIRECTLY.”

“This one would say to His Imperial Majesty that once Cast, all magic is Typed. Typeless Magic merely has no Element before it is Cast.” Nevertheless, I snapped my fingers, and instantly the complete Starry Heavens for the Sage version of Bring Down the Moon and Stars was extant around me. The next second the power flowed from it, and the sky above me blossomed with lights far beyond that of the Aurora Australis as Healing Magic of at least twelve different Elements came down.

Divination, to find the ills, and Argent, to chase away any debuffs or actively malevolent magic, were naturally completely unknown to The Ice Dragon, and a soft hiss accentuated the wind as He felt the Holy power behind it all, something both alien and wondrous, and nothing at all like the magic of the Axiomites or Netherworld.

There was nothing under here to accept the Healing coming down, so I did not keep it up long, not wanting to deprive the area of its Mana mix needlessly. It vanished before the first streams of sparkling multi-Element radiance hit the ground, and there was nothing but blowing flesh-stripping frozen snow and the quiet whispers of the razored wind around me.

“...THERE WERE MORE THAN TEN ELEMENTS TO THAT SPELL. I DID NOT RECOGNIZE SOME OF THE ELEMENTS THEREIN...”

“Divination, Argent, and Temporal Magic, Your Imperial Majesty, in addition to Divine and Primal Power. This one naturally stays away from Dark Magic.”

“TEMPORAL.” The swirl in the Manafield was slightly ominous. “YOU CAN TOUCH THE MAGIC OF TIME...”

Ho, He hadn’t felt it. Thought sure He would. “Of course, Your Imperial Majesty. Once one knows Void Magic, the Temporal Element is right next door.” I flicked a finger and ‘ported myself six seconds into the future, skipping the time in between.

The Manafield was basically frozen when I arrived from the Timeskip, the High Emperor staring at me across almost two hundred miles as I so casually used the Time Element.

“TRULY A SAGE OF MAGIC. YOU HAVE EARNED MY ATTENTION, LITTLE ENVOY. TELL ME, HOW HAVE YOU MANAGED TO AVOID SO MUCH OF THE ARROGANCE THAT ENCIRCLES THE SAGES OF YOUR SPECIES?” I couldn’t tell how impressed or amused He was, although both were there.

“When one has felt a Realm Lord, both in support and opposed, there is precious little need for arrogance on one’s own account, Your Imperial Majesty.”

The wind and ice swirled quietly at that remark.

“YOU HAVE FELT THE REALM LORDS OF THE NETHERWORLD, AND THE BEAST LORD.”

“This one has, Your Imperial Majesty,” I affirmed.

“AND THE LORDS OF LIGHT?”

“If we can feel the Axiomites, the end times are upon us, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“AXIOMITES...” He tested the word, found it appropriate. “SO... YOU KNOW WHAT THEY PORTEND...”

“After the Netherworld invaded the Beast World, it was not hard to figure out, Your Imperial Majesty.”

I was more off-put about why I heard regret in His voice. It was the wrong emotion to have. Anger, fear, even some sadness or despair, I could understand.

But... regret?

Did He realize that He and His fellow High Emperors were likely the ones that had lured them here?

Or... had that been the intention all along? To lure... something here, just not what had come.

Why would He do such a thing...

The first Realm Lord He had felt had likely been the Beast Lord. The Summoning Element was very bound up in the Beast Lord’s power, but the Element was no real threat to the High Emperors, so what...

Well, the veil between the two worlds was of the Beast Lord’s making. It could be lowered at any time, and the Beast Lord come into and take over this world...

But the Beast Lord had been the one to put it up, so that made little sense. Something subtler, perhaps?

The Beast Realm was a pocket realm, a small universe. It was basically the personal domain of a Lesser God, functionally a Divine Realm, and it sat outside the normal universe...

For it to grow, then, it needed contact with the Mortal Plane, and the power of it. Beasts who died in the Beast Realm were continually recycled, the total amount of power and Mana was fixed.

Except for those Beasts with Contracts with Humans. They were bringing in new energy, be it direct help with the Summoning Element or devouring the Bloodlines of Mortal Beasts to evolve and grow stronger, perhaps even mutate into all-new forms.

They were a slow but steady siphon on the magic and Bloodlines of the native Beasts, and there was literally no way to stop it. If you looked at the very long term, it was a leeching on our world, a small but significant drop in the potential of Earth’s Beasts.

And given He was a Realm Lord, there was no way to stop the Beast Lord from doing that, which must have been quite irritating to The Ice Emperor.

The Beast Lord... was also not a Dragon. I hadn’t ever caught sight of Him, but I was pretty sure He was some form of Celestial Ki-rin, a Winged Unicorn, also one of the greatest Sacred Bloodlines of the Beasts.

Had the three High Emperors... called for aid? In a manner only Dragons could, hoping to attract the attention of a Dragon Lord, to offset the Beast Lord?

And then their fumbling efforts had backfired abominably?

I was sure the Beast Lord would know, but I didn’t have the status or power to get the answer from Him. I could bring it up with Flowing Silver High Emperor and see if an Imperial Nine-Tailed Fox could get an answer.

If I was right with this supposition, and my gut said I was (probably because I didn’t really trust Dragons...), then not only were the High Emperors to blame, it wasn’t even an accident, just deliberate stupidity and racial distrust and envy.

I just took a deep breath and shook my head to myself.

“CONTINUE WITH YOUR WORK,” the voice of the ancient Imperial Dragon told me, and His Awareness pulled away from the Manafield, sending it swirling back to normal.

I got back to my feet and promptly resumed making more columnar stands to put the Vivic Icefire Braziers upon, but my other thoughtstreams were whirling.

The High Emperor was likely not used to hiding His emotions and feelings from someone with mundane skill modifiers as high as mine.

My modifier was +108. That defaulted to basically being able to read people’s minds just by looking at them and feeling their emotions, without use of magic. I wasn’t going to use any kind of magic to probe an Emperor, let alone a High Emperor, but mundane awareness taken to the level of Eternals? I could totally do that, and I had!

What was I going to do with the knowledge? Well, I would remember it, and if and when there came a time for a reckoning, three High Emperors who thought themselves above the rest of the world were going to pay the butcher’s bills they’d accrued over the millennia...

-------

The South American Floodbreaker Ritual Site...

The Pattern was an absolute shambles, there were dozens of dead volunteer mages around, and all the hard-earned Mana accrued by thousands of man-hours was wasted and unusable.

I listened to the last wailing cries of the half-Sage who thought he’d had all this in the bag as Grandfather Cloudcatcher, the greatest Spider in the world, wrapped him up in silk that could capture clouds, ghosts, and Emperor Beasts, and tidily tucked him away. He’d no doubt make a great meal for one of the grand-kids, and I didn’t even ask for the head. The half-Sage joined a dozen other Black Curia members, but there were still a score more of them around, including the half-Sage’s assistant Deacon, most of them getting their heads chopped off as I watched.

The White Necromancers in the Broom Closet were already prepping to receive them, and Sama was running her finger down the length of Tremble, ready to go hunting.

The Deacon was drooling in my grasp, my hand in his oiled hair, about as smart as a dog at the moment and only able to whimper and paw at the ground. Burt was going to engage in a contest of wills with the sadistic fuck and turn his memories inside-out in so doing.

He walked over, pushing the stack of severed heads of men and women who’d thought they were going to engage in a great wickedness, maybe push forward the end of the world, and instead their bodies were being vivisized and their spirits were going to be giving up their acquaintances before being sent off to the Netherworld for what would doubtless prove to be a very undesired state of post-mortal existence.

They weren’t going to find any welcome there. Failures were treated like shit, and this was going to become an Epic Failure, indeed.

“There’s a dozen assholes among the survivors, but they aren’t Curia,” Burt told me in a low voice. “Problems with that?”

“South America is mage-shy as it is, we have to keep them. Grandfather Cloudcatcher isn’t going to pass up some free meals of Dark Mage, but the Beasts aren’t going to help with the Ritual itself. That’s up to us.”

“Well, manpower commitments should rise with the shores being undisturbed.” He reached out, grabbed the Deacon as I let go, and propelled him along towards the standing Portal there. “We’ll get on this, and you know what Sama is going to do to them.”

“Without a doubt,” I nodded, feeling the razor of her readiness in the Markspace. “I’ll take care of the rest.”