Mage Tank-Chapter 262: The Last Generation

“Until that time, the System acted like a set of laws. You could not appeal to it, it could not be reasoned with. It did as it willed and there was certainty in its actions. However, the individual System Cores developed a degree of agency that they’d lacked before. It was the barest hint of flexibility, but it unveiled an enormous number of new possibilities.

“The final difference was that once the avatars began to wake, one sought us out to give us gifts. We sent him away, not trusting whatever scheming the man was up to. Shortly after, another avatar approached us to trade. We viewed this one with equal skepticism, and between the five of us we challenged her every proposed bargain with endless conditions. This went on for many years, where one or both of these avatars would drop by and we’d hold negotiations, always evaluating and never agreeing to anything.

“Gold was the first to accept an olive branch from the avatar known as Fortune, saying that her goddess assured her of its intent. Not that it was good intent or bad intent, but merely that the gift was exactly what it claimed to be. Fortune would give it to us, it would be ours, and any outcome from accepting the gift would be wholly determined by how we used it.

“The gift was a reality anchor. This was of great interest to Silver, since it would allow her to create a permanent connection between one of her dimensional realms and the planet. This also ensures the realm’s existence, even if Silver herself were to die.”

I grabbed onto that detail immediately. I currently had a reality anchor sitting in my inventory, extracted from the Wand of Boundless Night by Sam’lia herself. The question of what would happen to the Closet upon my death was one that had never been answered. If I used the reality anchor to grant it a permanent access point in Arzia, then it would persist even without me, according to what Hep was saying.

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The other implication was that right now, if I were to get smeared by a random powerhouse, the whole thing would disappear. Or all its contents would appear within my long-neglected residence in Formation, creating a lethal loot-splosion. We’d need more confirmation, but finding a suitable location for the permanent portal now placed much higher on the List if it was certain to ensure the Closet’s ongoing survival post-Arlo.

“Our success with containing Thrall in the prior generation led Silver down several paths of research,” Hep continued. “Gold’s expertise with divine matters also lent us a new perspective on the challenge we faced concerning the avatars. No amount of raw power can destroy them. They are not entities that can be killed in the traditional sense. The avatars embody concepts that endure even when their physical bodies are but ash and blood.

“After all, how does one kill Yearning? By killing all that yearns? Even then, the potential for any being to want exists within this universe, and the concept of yearning would carry on. But while the avatars embody a concept, their presence on the material plane is expressed through a discrete form. We may not be capable of excising yearning from our reality, but we might be able to remove the corrupt manifestation of that concept.

“This is to say, an entity like Orexis has the durability of a concept, but the spatial limitations of an object. If he exists within a space that is removed from our planet, he will have no influence here. With Silver’s dimensionalism, Gold’s insights, and a reality anchor in our hands, we began to build a prison. Within it would be a cell tailor-made for each avatar we knew of.”

“The Cage,” I said.

“You got it,” said Hep. “We can’t claim credit for the whole thing. Much of our understanding was aided by the Delvers of that generation, who also contributed vast quantities of materials, labor, and expertise. Fortune certainly knew what we would do with the anchor he gifted us, and Avarice was essential for obtaining the System’s cooperation. It was a true world wonder, created through the labors of multiple civilizations across a century of effort, built upon the endless depths of draconic wisdom, and safeguarded by the System itself.

“Then the true war began, but this war could not be like the ones that came before. Force would not topple the avatars. They needed to be tricked and corralled, their natures turned against them. The path of each avatar’s hubris needed to end inside The Cage. Somehow, between us five, the mightiest Delvers of that era, the subtle encouragement of the System, and Fortune’s infuriatingly effective tongue, we trapped the avatars. Most of the ones we knew of, at least.

“It was an incomplete solution, and we Rulers knew it. The Cage was not meant to be the only weapon against the avatars, but it was more effective than anyone had ever hoped. For Dragons, it was a true victory. Even if we could not trap them all, even if the System brought ruin and another avatar down upon us, so long as the planet could recover, we had hope that the avatars could eventually be beaten. Their numbers had been reduced dramatically.

“However, the mortals saw it in a different light. If they could not end the threat before the ascension, it was a failure. Their civilizations would fall, all those they cared for who could not ascend would die, and their world would end. We did not account for how extreme this would make some of those we worked with, and when it became clear that the avatars as a whole would not fall to The Cage, a misguided group sought to end the process of ascension once and for all.

“There are three System Cores. We’d discovered that two of them orbited the planet, buried deep within artificial moons. Still no idea where the third one is. Anyway, shortly before the ascension, several of the highest-Level Delver parties tried to destroy one of the moons. They reasoned that System Core 1 managed the first phase, and that the System would be incapable of restarting if SC1 were destroyed. I believe this is a flawed understanding of how the Cores function, but they did not seek my input on the matter.

“I don’t think their plan involved dropping the moon on the planet, but I also don’t think their plan took into account the System’s self-defense capabilities. This is probably because we’d never seen what the System can really do if threatened. I can only speculate as to what went on up there, but the moon wasn’t destroyed. When it fell, it struck the continent in precisely the location it needed to annihilate every advanced civilization on the planet in the shortest amount of time possible. ℞â𝐍öВƐs

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“We barely escaped. One path of Silver’s research had her looking for ways to transport people to an entirely new planet, either through hopping across dimensions or simply teleporting somewhere habitable. It began as a bad solution to the avatar problem, but eventually became a final escape option, a last mode of retreat if the entire planet were to become unsalvageable. Given that a moon had just fallen on the remaining half of the planet that could support life, we did not have high hopes for the planet becoming habitable again.

“Rather than commit ourselves to a sleep that might never end, we used Silver’s magicks to try and leave the planet behind in exchange for a new one. The place we targeted is… survivable. But it is harsh. The mana is extraordinarily thin compared to this world, but it was the best among those we’d scried. We knew it would mean millenia of hardship, but we could continue our search for a better place after arriving. If we couldn’t find somewhere better, and if by some miracle this planet survived, then maybe we could return.” Hep’s gaze had gone unfocused, staring aimlessly into the distance. “But, it didn’t work.”

His eyes sharpened and fixed on me.

“Tell me, Master Xor’Drel, why do you think Silver’s magicks failed?”

I really didn’t enjoy being put on the spot like this. I glanced over at Silver who watched me with interest, an eyebrow raised as if daring me to say she’d fucked it up. I doubted the answer was that simple. If Hep actually expected me to respond, it’s because he thought I’d know the answer. It was possible that an avatar had stopped them from fleeing, but to what end? To force them to expose the secrets of The Cage?

That didn’t fit the theme of this arc of Hep’s tale. This part wasn’t warning us about the avatars, it warned us against something else.

“The System stopped you from leaving,” I said.

“It sure fucking did,” Hep growled.