In Myriad’s realm, books of all sorts were swarming around Ben, flying under the power of his actualization as he took them all in, reading the history and records of his god’s race to pass the time while his minds focused on different problems, with a solution finally snapping into place after months of thinking.

<ACTUALIZATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<KNOWLEDGE LEVEL INCREASED>

Got it.

The thought wasn’t referring to his ninth level of actualization he’d gained in the two months since the world had gone to hell, nor the eighth level of his knowledge to suddenly take shape though. No, instead it referred to a secret project of his, one he’d been working on ever since he’d encountered the gate to hell, with the enchantments he’d need to construct finally taking shape in his mind.

“And I cannot stress enough how worrying it is that you won’t tell me what it is you’ve been trying to make,” Myriad sighed, still not knowing what mysterious project had swarmed his apostle’s idle thoughts in all of that time. “Nothing good ever comes from anything you feel the need to hide from me.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll see later,” Ben said, waiving off his god's concerns. “I’m going to need to build a large part of it in your church anyway so I can’t exactly keep it a secret forever. Oh, but no telling the other gods, including Nare and Helori. I trust them, but this is the sort of thing that’s more useful the less people know about it.”

“That’s horrifying to hear coming from you of all people.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“That I’ve never heard you care about keeping a secret from those two as well and now I can’t begin to imagine what you’re trying to do.”

“Again, it will be fine so stop stressing. It’s gonna age you horribly.”

“Everything you do ages me.”

“That can’t be right, I’m such a sweet little guy. It’s not good to take your problems out on the people you care about, buddy.”

“And yet, with the next wave only two months away, somehow you’re still a bigger point of stress to me than anything else.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Ben groaned as he slumped to the ground, letting the various books around him fall with him. “Just thinking about it has me feeling extra mortal. How do you think it’s gonna go?”

“Bad, but still likely better than initially projected,” Myriad told him, sounding largely neutral in an attempt to not let the future get to either of them. “We’ve significantly more awakened mages than initially expected-”

“You’re welcome for that.”

“And the overall quality of weapons is higher than we’d been planning to have access to as well-”

“Again, you’re welcome.”

“Plus, we didn’t have to spend any faith during the first wave and given how things turned out there, significantly less damage was caused to the world as a whole-”

“Mmh, I don’t really want to take credit for that one,” Ben grumbled. No matter the part he’d played in it, he’d spent lives to do it and that fact still hung over him, no matter how unintentional it had been. “Anyway, I hear a but coming.”

“But I’ve seen firsthand how bad the second wave can be,” Myriad sighed. “Things aren’t going to stay so well afterwards. Depending on how bad it ends up, we might not even be able to put together an organized front against the third wave, though that is a future we’ll likely be able to avoid, just a worst-case scenario. It’s all going to depend on how well we cull their numbers in the months between them.”

“Welp, here’s hoping all the lovely folks I helped awaken have put in the work to get used to their new level of power. Speaking of, we going to do that again soon?”

Ben knew that word had been spread that there was a person who could awaken people with certain physical magics if they reached the eighth level of the skill and there were plenty across the globe who’d been happy to work themselves to the edge of death for a chance to make that happen.

“The deadline’s been placed, we’ll have you come a month out. Anyone who reaches it after that is out of luck until closer to the third wave, assuming you survive that is.”

“I’m personally a fan of operating on the assumption I’ll be alive in a year.”

Even if it is a bit of a big one to make.

Wave two was the place where most of the worlds that had survived the first would end up falling. Not many made it to the third. With the way things had largely felt like they’d gone back to normal given how the first wave had ended, it could be easy to forget the severity of the danger they were in but it was nipping at their heels, ready to take them all down.

Aaand not think about it.

With only a little bit of peace left before things went to hell, he didn’t want to dwell on the future, instead focusing on the present.

It was a feeling Myriad was able to pick up on and was happy enough to share, with memories of the invasion filling his thoughts as well. The cube knew what was coming from firsthand experience, better to not dwell on the inevitable and focus on the more peaceful present.

“In that case, will you go back to looking at the summoning spell?” His god asked him. “I think this is the longest break you’ve had from it in a while.”

A break extending to his return to Stonewall after the outsider had escaped into the world as Ben focused on other interests, both doing more reading and his secret project, as well as training his actualization, even if he didn’t have any real use for it beyond the entertainment it provided him and its ability to satisfy his cravings, something he put to use then and there as he created a bar of chocolate for himself and his god to enjoy while they talked.

“Mmh, I’ll get back to it tomorrow. Who knows, maybe having a bit of time off was exactly what I needed to finally make some progress, huh?”

“Ha, you’re free to hope as much as you want.”