Chapter 296

He cradled the crushed shell in his hands, tears streaming down his face at the death of his lone companion-

“Ben.”

Without Greed he knew it was the end for him. His body was a mess of injuries. Broken and bleeding, he did all he could to raise his head-

“Ben!”

Facing the balls of fire plummeting from the heavens, one on a collision course that he couldn’t avoid. He’d need the strength to move to do that and he was spent. After so long in there, so many near-death experiences and violent injuries he had nothing left to give. All he could do was watch his death come-

“BEN!” Thera yelled as she shook him awake, his eyes snapping open as she did, only for her to softly take his face in her hands. “Are you okay? You were thrashing and groaning and I wanted to let you sleep a bit longer but things weren’t looking good so-”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Thanks for waking me but it was just a nightmare. I think I’ll be having them for a while,” He muttered as he thought back to it. Even if he and Greed lived, the ordeal had left its mark. It was just something he’d need to learn how to live with.

But I’ve got plenty of experience with that already anyway.

Thera though seemed unconvinced as she split her attention between him and the road ahead. “Has this been happening a lot since you got out?”

“Only on the nights I’m not in Myriad’s realm, so if I just keep going there then there’s no problem.”

“That actually sounds like a huge problem.”

“If it doesn’t get better I’ll make myself some sleeping meds when we’re back in Stonewall,” He said, trying to wave off the concern. “Gotta see how awakening my crafting affected my alchemy anyway.”

“I don’t think that’s going to solve the root of your problem, but then I don’t know enough about human mental structure to be sure,” A voice said from behind them where there should have only been the statue they were delivering, as well as the magic materials and crates of books he’d bought.

Thera immediately stopped the cart and they turned around, finding a familiar grey sitting on the statue, or at least appearing to.

“I was wondering when I’d hear from you Quilith,” Ben said, giving the other man a broad smile. “Looks like I’ve lived to take advantage of your race’s knowledge for another day.”

“It’s good to see you as well,” The small alien said in unusually good cheer. “Your survival has left me extremely wealthy.”

“…What?”

“Just some gambling on my end to pass the time. You wouldn’t believe how bad the odds against you were.”

“What the hell man! I was doing my best not to die and you were gambling on me? That’s so… wait, Myriad! Are you listening? I know the gods were placing bets on me and Thera in the last trial, don’t tell me they did it for this one too?”

His god said awkwardly.

“Yeah? Well, I’m noticing your tone and the fact that you said ‘ordinarily’ so what gives man?”

“Yeah yeah, good for both of you then,” He muttered. “I guess since you guys were betting on me then it’s fine. So anyway, what do I owe the privilege Quilith, going to give me a quick lesson while I’m off to screw over Eneth?”

“This little visit was more to simply acknowledge your survival. We were thinking of beginning again in a month while we sort out what we can now that your invasion has a much more fixed date, so unless there’s anything urgent I just came to say congratulations on living and I’ll be on my way.”

“Wait,” Ben told him, holding up a hand to stop him. There was something he’d been lightly thinking on ever since the trial, namely the times that Quilith had stopped by. The man had not only taken his last words, but also passed on a message to Thera from him when it seemed like she’d needed it, and he couldn’t deny that had changed things for him.

Damn it, even if that was done to manipulate me then it freaking worked. I’m grateful whether I like it or not, and I’m sure that’s exactly what they wanted. I’m such a freaking sucker, but I’ll at least hear him out and see if I can do anything to ease my conscience.

“Quilith, tell me what’s going on with your world.”

The alien’s already large eyes widened at the statement, but defying Ben’s expectations he shook his head. “You have enough to worry about here, you can worry about my doomed planet if you live long enough.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. You said I was a person of interest before, and here I am interested, so out with it.”

“How did you… No, nevermind, that’s a stupid question. I really don’t pay enough mind to the fact that you have beings living in a higher plane of reality when I talk sometimes,” The alien said with a sigh as he looked off into the distance at passing trees while he thought. “You know, this is an exceptionally kind universe.”

“Ha, you’re telling that to someone who spent a couple months fighting for their life buddy, say something a little more convincing. Hell, seems most people think the end of the world is at our doorstep.”

“Life can be hostile, that’s a fact of any evolutionary system that functions on a survival of the fittest rule. I’m not talking about the life in this universe, but the universe itself,” The grey began with a far-off look in his eyes. “Not only do you have magic here, a built-in feature that allows for all sorts of incredible things, healing and building and creating in a way a universe lacking it could only dream of, but you have so many other wonderful features here too. Honestly, just the fact that it seems to lack a universal speed limit without creating unending paradoxes, or worse, time travel, makes this reality a blessing for those who live in it. If you all don’t die in this coming invasion, if you’re able to fight it off then combined with the benefits of what you’ve all already built up and the help of your gods, all of reality will open itself up to you. In all of the years we’ve spent peering through the boundaries of our reality in others, cataloging millions of them as we’ve gone, this still has to be one of the better ones.”

Thera had stopped the cart, both of them listening attentively to what Quilith had to say, both curious where this was leading as he continued.

“My planet faces an inescapable threat, time. While there are similarities between my home reality and both this one and the one you came from Ben, there are also inescapable differences. Even your original one would be preferable for all of the harshness it might have. The stars of my universe all die after a short two billion years, and they don’t arrange themselves into galaxies like yours do. Combine that with a higher rate of universal expansion and a slower galactic speed limit and you can see that the world I come from isn’t a cradle, waiting for its children to take its first steps, but a prison, trapping us. We were working on space travel when humanity discovered fire, but for all of the advancements we’ve made in that time there’s one unavoidable conclusion. We could never make a ship that could move faster than the distance between all stars grows, but even if we could no new stars are being born either. Even if we created something that our descendants could live on for millions of years of travel, they’d never make it to a new world.”

“And how long until your star dies then?” He asked quietly, seeing where this was going.

“It’s already started, and sadly its death rate is substantial. We’ve got maybe a decade if we’re lucky. With the technology we have at our fingertips we might be able to keep ourselves alive for a while, maybe even tens of thousands of years, but the quality of life is going to be almost nonexistent as we wait for our demise. One day in the blink of an eye the light of our sky will vanish and we’ll be trapped in the buildings we have to sustain us, never again to walk under the open sky. Depressing, isn’t it?” He said with a forced laugh that Ben ignored as his minds were a flurry of activity.

“And your population?”

“Currently we sit at about a hundred million. Just five centuries ago we were in the billions, but it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s a strong voluntary extinction movement amongst us. Passing on the curse of life is no kindness, even if some of us still give into the temptation.”

“…And just what did you think that I might be able to do about it if you thought I had potential?”

Quilith just shook his head. “A starving man would eat air. We’re looking at any option no matter how unlikely, that’s why I told you not to worry about it. Focus on your own world, even if we fight it our end is all but written in stone. The most we can currently do is help develop this world. If we’re lucky then your gods might be able to do something, but if we’re not then as long as you all live we can at least be remembered with a handful of our people surviving. It’s better than the countless corpses of worlds we know that came before us.”

He shook his head as the sad look in his eye vanished, and with that he bid them goodbye, at least for the time, with the promise of Ben’s lessons resuming in a month.

When they were alone he could see that Thera was deeply uncomfortable with what they’d heard but there was nothing he could say. He was given a lot to think on and plenty to work through, so he simply took her free hand in his own and leaned his head against her shoulder as he repeated what he’d done in Allfaith, forcing his mind to his god’s realm.

“Ben, just because you can doesn’t mean your should show up out of the blue,” Myriad said as soon as he noticed him, something he ignored as he looked at his god, giving voice to the only question that made sense to ask after hearing that another world full of people was about to end.

“Myriad, I want you to teach me how I and the others were brought here.”

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