//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 - All of life's a stage... // Story: The Lost Chronicles of Auric Fulcrum // by Thadius0 //------------------------------// The boy is in the space between tower and wall, testing the latest effects of one of his combination spells. "Whirlwind and Growth make...huh. Flying plants. I have...the odd compulsion to name you. Instead, methinks I'll set you free." As the plants float out over the walls to the vast world beyond, a tinny chime can be heard from the doors. "Hello, and welcome to the tower of Auric Fulcrum. If you are a friend, please say one now. If you are a native life-form, please say two. If you are hostile, Auric will be out to deal with you shortly." Following the recording and the increasing screams of the word 'one' is a proclamation. "These...these recorded messages aren't even connected to the door! AURIC! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!" The boy laughs off the screaming of the lavender alicorn on the other side, and his mind flinches back, to the last time he used such crystals... ----- (Let's do the time warp again!) Auric looks at two crystals, extracted from under Canterlot, that sit on his desk. Beautiful things, really. Shame he was about to mar that a bit. Putting his hand on one, he weaves a recording spell into it, that will take in his appearance and voice. Then, with a flicker of power, he turns it on. "Teridax," he begins. "I send this to you for one reason. To tell you I will not fight you." He deliberately pauses for five seconds there. "At least, not in your world. Nor, I think, will I permit you to fight me in mine. In the first case, t'would be folly for me to come to your world to fight you. It'd be like setting foot into the lair of a lich and expecting no traps to spring. And in the second, there is too much here that I hold dear that could suffer...collateral damage. "No, instead, by the time you receive this, I will have worked out the details of a staging ground with Umbra Shadow-Walker. If you truly wish to fight me, he can lead you there. Fail to arrive...and I may have to alert your world's alicorns to your potential plans. "Oh yes," and here he grinned a grin that would be more at home on the one he was addressing, "I know all about that. Not only have I gone through similar here, but my Mirror forecasts potential futures. Yours seem to revolve around a point where all magic is lynch-pinned to one...lavender...mare. Like I said, fail to come, and I will just have to...warn them." Here Auric briefly activated his new glowing eyes and glared at the crystal. "Your move." A burst of energy turns the crystal off. Auric weaves a spell into the crystal so it will activate only in the presence of Teridax or one of his minions, before turning to the second. A much less elegant spell is crafted here, one that will only record sound. But it is necessary. "Princess Celestia, raiser of the sun, I bid you greetings and give you warning. There will come a time in the near future, the very near future, when one you thought sealed away will walk amongst you again. He will drain magic freely from the land. He is known only as Tirek. And I know your plans for when he comes for Alicorn magic. I implore you, Princess, do not do it. "Tirek was not the only one to escape from Tartarus. Should you put all Alicorn magic into Twilight Sparkle, you will play into Teridax's plans. The magic of the world must not fall, true. But you should not place all magic into one vessel." Here he paused. "Let your student be the sun. Let your niece be the moon. Let them flee, keep the world turning, and try to find a way to reverse whatever it is Tirek does. Your student is good at that, I'm told. If all else fails, at least the Empire should keep them safe. While Tirek must be stopped...So must Teridax. Do not let him win at whatever game he plays. Take precautions besides the one you intend, Celestia. Thank you for listening to the ramblings of an Alchemist." The glow fades, the spell is complete. Another one is layered in, to make sure it can activate when needed, and Auric smiles, happy that he recorded at least one positive message for that Universe. And then he turned to his Mirror and sighed, setting it to wander the Void Eternal. No sense looking for a shadow, he’d be slippery. One could, however, attempt to gain his attention. Thus was the reason behind suddenly rapping on the glass in a ‘shave and a haircut’ pattern. Every so often, he’d also call out to Umbra. Of course, said methods of calling out were extraordinarily rude. There might have been a few ‘yo momma’ jokes in there as well. “Y’know, normally I’d be a little pissed about the insults, but I’ve been really goddamn bored since the last time we met, so I’ll let it slide...this time. Do it again and I might retroactively reprogram you as a...hmm, I don’t know...slug maybe?” Despite the threat, Auric smiled upon seeing a shadowy figure appear in his mirror. “Umbra, good to see you. No, really, it is. And do you have any idea how hard it is to find you in the Void Eternal? Seriously. I’d have better luck looking for a hay-colored needle in a haystack. While on fire.” The shadow seemed like it would have blushed a little if it had a face. “Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. Look, I’ll find something that’ll help you find me if need be. Ah… just let me look through one of my subspace pockets for a sec...no, not this one...nope...ah! Here, it’s dangerous to be alone now, take this.” The object in question was a slim, rectangular device. Less than six buttons scattered across it’s surface, with a strange logo on the back. “Okay, I know, it looks like a shitty knock-off iPhone, but it’ll bounce a signal across three hundred thousand different Universes. Really, it only connects to the Internet and the other few of these I have. Now you can give me a call whenever you need help.” Of course, the moment the shadow made a ‘tossing’ motion and the ‘phone’ impacted the glass, there was a ripple effect as it was absorbed. Token accepted, Umbra Shadow-Walker added to your list. Auric smiled as the shadow read the words in reverse. “Forgot to mention that little effect of my mirror. Whoops. Hope it wasn’t too expensive. But look on the bright side, at least now I can find you. Whenever.” “...Well, from what I can tell, your mirror now functions as the phone itself, so that’s good. Also, really, it cost...a lot less than you might expect. All I really needed to do was program it into existence...Jeez, I can see why so many people call SysAdmin powers cheating.” Auric held up two extended fingers. “That’s half the reason I was looking for you, but we’ll get into that later.” Extending his other hand, he revealed two crystals, charged with magic and a message each. “I need you to deliver something to, ugh, Teridax’s Universe.” Umbra swore under his breath. “Goddamn it! This is gonna be a lot more difficult than it would have been five hours-by your standards-ago. Teridax decided to try to work his way into SysAdmin coding, almost locked me out before I disengaged my Local Timeline Sync. Thank the gods that Time doesn’t exist in the Void. Managed to work in a lot of hidden backdoors retroactively, asshole won’t know he didn’t succeed until it’s too late. Try as he might, he’s still only a 3D existence, compared to a 5.5D me.” Auric nodded a bit. “Well, keep your spoilers. This one,” he held up the one that glowed golden, “Is set to go off when it detects moving metal, and should be dropped off in Teridax’s chambers, or however close you feel comfortable getting.” Thus saying, it was tossed into the mirror. The second was rapidly held up. “And this one is set to go off when it hits the ground, it has a message to his Cel. A warning. About what is likely to come, if I know my Multiverse. And Teridax. Try to get it in her chambers when she’s alone.” And with that, the second was tossed into the mirror as well. Catching both of the crystals, Umbra smirked, a lightly glowing slash of white appearing below his eyes. “Can do, boss man. Teridax is gonna shit himself when he realizes that he failed at keeping out...anyone, really. Of course, if I get my superiors to come down on his Universe, we could encode his soul as a virus and end the war in, like, three seconds. But, you probably don’t want that.” Auric frowned and crossed his arms while shaking his head. “Nope. He’s gone through all this effort, I think it only fair he see me when I’ve nothing to lose. If it wouldn’t tax you too greatly, could you, perhaps, make a staging ground for this fight betwixt him and I? One where we won’t have to worry about either of our worlds?” Umbra looked pensive for a moment, before replying. “As a matter of fact, a few months, by my Local standards, ago, I actually rewrote a forming Universe as a training ground. Long story short, the core of the Universe, as in, what the Universe considers its ‘main subject’, is a gigantic earth-like Planet, tropical, mostly; with, unfortunately, gigantic laser death-wasps the size of minivans. Not really a problem, just something to watch out for. Rather fragile, really. Barely qualifies as a predator, and only because of their laser beams. What was I saying again? Oh yeah, I already have a Universe set up, no sentient beings or anything. Yeah.” Auric blinked at that. “Huh. Convenient. I think. Well then. Oh, by the way, should Teridax actually receive my first message, he’ll likely call on you to guide him to the ‘staging ground’, which, if you don’t mind, I’d like to use that planet for it. As long as you can also link this Mirror to it somehow. So that, y’know, when I’m ready, I can just walk through and get there.” “...Aaanndd...okay! Link is set up and ready to go, crystals should drop in on Teridax and his Celestia in...three...two..one...Package dropped. Well, that’s done. Anything else?” Auric merely smiled. “Add one parameter to this world of yours? Make Immortality count for nothing. That way, one of us dies there.” “I dunno, man. I may be an asexual, oblivious fool in terms of relationships, but I’d rather not, if only for Measured’s sake… speaking of her, she doing okay?” Auric briefly nods. “You don’t quite get it, though. I’m making sure that we’re fighting on equal ground, first off, which is something he’ll enjoy. And probably the biggest piece of bait. But secondly, if he succeeds at...whatever his plan is? I managed to catch brief, possible glimpses of his possible futures.” Auric’s right side shifted to its Night coloration and his eyes started to burn blue. “You don’t want him as a co-worker. I’m making sure you can kill him and make it stick, or my allies can, if I fail.” “One: you won’t fail, a SysAdmin is helping you. We can do literally anything if we know the correct coding. Two: Che! Teridax wouldn’t be able to make it as a SysAdmin, he’s too focused on his agenda, not the Multiverses. Which, if you must know, is: Grow, Spread, Add; Total Freedom, Infinite Realms. Shitty motto, but it sums up pretty well. SysAdmins are there to help, not conquer. Should Teridax reach the 5.5D level, the Void itself would rewrite him to match us. Three: I could just turn off his Immortality and not tell him. No risk to you, deadly for him.” Auric shook his head again. “I don’t cheat, I have honor. Both of us or neither, and sealing him away worked so well last time. My morals are what separate me from him, at least I’d like to think so. And sealing is all you can do to true Immortals, which when I have my strength returned enough, I am. So like I said, same situation for the both of us, and I’ll even tell him myself during the fight.” Umbra distinctly began to look annoyed, more features appearing on his normally inexpressive head. “Fine. I’ll do it. And you misunderstand: Rewriting is literally turning him from Teridax...to… whatever his Admin name is, he won’t be Teridax anymore. Also, again, SysAdmins are beyond True Immortals. I can still kill him...unless he decides to try and absorb me, in which case he just gets Rewritten and then I can’t kill him.” Auric let out a sad smile. “Thank you, and I’m sorry for putting you through any trouble. I just...I want this to end.” Auric’s right hand lit up...with a blaze of cobalt flames. “One way or another, I want this to end.” Umbra actually flinched away, his features smoothing back out into naught but a pair of glowing eyes. “I-it’s no problem, really. S-SysAdmins are also technically part of Tech Support. We l-live to se-serve. H-hey, could you t-turn that off? It actually really hurts being in that light’s presence.” Auric blinked, turning his eyes to his hand. “Oh. This? This is just a bit of Dullahan leaking through. One moment.” The flames died slowly as the Night coloration faded. “There. Better? Sorry about that as well. E’er since we merged...my emotions are all over the place. Along with my powers.” “It’s fine. Most Admins are vulnerable to something or another, keeps us from being too… I guess distant? Whatever. Can you imagine over a hundred shadows, each capable of warping reality to the point where fact and fiction merge, all invulnerable to everything but the death of the Void? Not pretty. My weakness just so happens to be intensely magical Light. And really, that’s not the worst of it. My subordinate, Kage, is weak against gamma radiation. Sure, it doesn’t seem bad, but most stars give it off, which means he’s useless inside a Universe. Gods, what is wrong with me today? All this exposition and diverging from topics…” Auric merely chuckled and waved at the shadow. “I know, I know. Sometimes I’m giving a lecture to Measured as to what a particular element does, then somehow it segues from there to the game to...home. Or what used to be home.” He sighs. “Okay, I’ma let you go, but one last favor afore I do? Check in on my buddy Richard for me? I sent him a care package a while back, I’d like to know that he got it and that he’s...mostly okay. Take care, you crazy shade.” Umbra gave off the impression of a smile. “Yeah, sure. Take care too, you crazy alchemist… oh, before I go, you and Teridax aren’t the only ones who Understand. If you need to vent about it, call for a SysAdmin, we know your pain.” And with that, and an odd wail of static, the connection cut. Auric shook his head again. “So, another has our...curse, our burden. Hopefully of his own will, or if not, only after he became what he is, for mortals were not meant to know…” ----- My next caller was... Well it was highly reminiscent of the Zerg. I looked the form up and down in my mirror, quirked an eyebrow at the coin it was holding in one...appendage, and asked, "Can I help you?" The damn thing smiled at that. "No, see, that's the question I was going to ask you..."