Daily Short: System 12

ACT 963161069-26889.19.31

Wilson was sitting on a tree watching the newest addition of land to the Prison Plane. Surrounding the lands were large oceans. Given time, bridges of solid ice would eventually reconnect then North with the rest of the Prison Plane. The destruction of the North was a cataclysmic event that altered the landscape of the constructed fractal seal. It was fortunate in more ways than one that the overall containment hadn’t broken. Were any of the Elder Entities able to break free, Wilson would have had to take far more drastic steps. While the loss of life, the destruction of finance, and the obliteration of entire races were tragic, they could be eventually overcome.

Life, after all, couldn’t function with eldritch involvement.

Numbers flowed in a soothing stream dictating the investiture of reality. Even as Wilson’s main mana construct sat in the North, countless clones and threads ran around frantically to ensure the event wasn’t a precursor of something worse. It wouldn’t be the first time a mortal had meddled in affairs, thinking themselves superior to Wilson or his brethren. Elder Entities had a habit of extending enticing offers to attempt escape. In the long river of Time, there were quite a few idiots that were willing to sign their name on the dotted line without reading the fine print.

If only I could duplicate that trick where a permanent Spell forces all the Elder Entities into sealed dimensional shards. Wilson thought with a deep sigh. Some dimensions had geniuses that made common sense look like a drooling slack-jawed baby. If I could duplicate such a solution, it would save so many resources that otherwise are paid to Dust.

Unfortunately, it knew such a thing was a pipe dream for now. Powering such a Spell required a Shard from a Fallen Primordial or a piece of the Anomaly itself. Such things were beyond rare, existing in the myths of creation. Wilson was as likely to acquire one as he was to Ascend into a Higher Power. It theorized that Primordials were spawned from the Anomaly, but it wasn’t willing to look too closely. Those who approached the center of Reality searching for answers tended not to come back. It was an invitation-only place, and Wilson was definitely not invited.

Any contact with the Darkness is considered grounds for being banned. Wilson thought with a shrug. It had been a mandate from the Big Two, and none had the clout to contest it. Why the Twenty-Die and Reforged Universe cared enough to enact such a thing is a mystery.

It was unlikely the quick contact would be noticed, though. At the time, it had barely been able to detect the disjointed Numbers, much less act on them. Without the knowledge Eve Smith contained, it would never have made the connection in time. Even with a link, it was only due to the Silver Witch that a being like the Darkness was willing to negotiate.

Wilson had gambled and succeeded where other Systems failed.

The calculations from the Numbers showed the most probable reason for restricting access to the Darkness. It wasn’t something vague like fear or safety. No, it was more pragmatic. It was all about control. The temptations they offered were limited by restricting access to entities of such immense power. Much like Elder Entities would offer deals, beings of such power would do the same. Matt was merely a bigger version of what the Prison Plane contained. Operating on a large scale to make the Big Two ally against them.

The reasoning is sound. Wilson thought as his eyes watched a blonde-haired child practice Enchantment. Resources are never limitless, so restricting and dividing them makes sense.

If two people were sharing a pizza, they wouldn’t welcome a third person arriving to take slices.

Wilson sighed in annoyance. As long as the Big Two didn’t violate their primary directives and codes, there was little to be done about the issue. It didn’t fancy raising the point either, as they were under no illusions. Someone had likely discovered this in the past and then spoke up. The fact that they weren’t around to keep talking said volumes about the outcome.

No, best to expand slowly and safely, as I’ve always done. Wilson thought. Eve was an outlier that I acted on, and the probabilities aligned. A gamble, but a reasonable one. Poking the Big Two shows nothing but the likelihood of ceasing to exist.

Turning their eyes to the Deeps, a smile flickered across Wilson’s face. Like an anthill poked and burned, the Deeps was already turning into a battlefront of war. Armies marched, individuals fought, and Relics began to form. With the progress, it would take around a thousand years for everything to come to a head.

It glanced at the date ACT 963161069-26889.19.31.1300.56 showing and grimaced. A direct link to the Anomaly Centralized Time was difficult to parse even for a System. The option to refuse it, though, had never been a thought. It was clear Eve had finally taken the first step to link her Space-Time Stamp together. Whatever traumatic event had prompted the occurrence wasn’t something Wilson was willing to look into. Another glance at the link showed the incredible accuracy of the Anomaly.

It had precisely processed the years the dimension had existed, the years the Prison Plane had lived, the months, the days, the hours, and the seconds. It was precision only possible for something that had existed before Reality itself.

Using this information would allow someone to keep track of the time no matter when, where, or how they were in motion. Wilson was already utilizing the numbers to standardize the temporal portion of the fractal seal. No longer would the Elder Entities have any way to contact the past and affect the future.

A blessing and a curse. Wilson thought. One who brings change at the cost of great destruction. A true witch, indeed!