The first day of their mandatory medical leave was spent in a state of profound and blissful inactivity. They slept late, ate a leisurely meal in the guild's dining hall, and for the first time in a long time, simply existed without the imminent threat of death or dimensional collapse hanging over their heads. But by the second day, a restless energy had begun to settle over the group. They were mages, warriors, people of action. Idleness did not come naturally to them.
True to his word, Astraeus led them to the Guild's library. The main hall was a bustling hub of quiet activity, with mages of all ranks poring over scrolls and tomes. But their destination was the third floor, the east wing, and the imposing crimson door of the restricted section.
Astraeus's Apprentice badge, now a symbol of so much more than just rank, granted them entry. The air inside was still and cool, thick with the scent of old paper, binding glue, and the faint, tingling hum of preservation magic. The silence here was different from the main library; it was a heavy, reverent silence, the kind that accumulates in places where dangerous knowledge is kept under lock and key.
"Alright," Astraeus said, his voice a low whisper that was still loud in the stillness. "We need to be systematic. We're looking for anything related to four key topics: 'Reality Anchor' or 'Dimensional Anchor', 'Chaos' or 'Primordial Energy', the 'Architect of Ruin', and the history of the Valdris ruins."
"Divide and conquer," Darius said, his practical nature taking charge. "I'll take history. Ruins, timelines, anything that gives us a context for what happened there. Lyra, you're good at finding patterns; you look for anything on the Architect. Thomas, you've got a knack for obscure magical theory; you handle Chaos. Kira, your knowledge of healing and life magic might give you a unique perspective on Reality Anchors. Astraeus, you should oversee, connect the dots. You know the most about all of this."
It was a solid plan, and they set to work. The restricted library was not organized like a public collection. Books were grouped by subject, but also by the level of danger their contents posed. Tomes bound in dark leather, pulsing with a faint, malevolent energy, were kept on higher shelves, while more theoretical works were more accessible.
For hours, the only sound was the soft rustle of turning pages and the occasional quiet murmur as one of them found a potential lead. It was a slow, painstaking process. The knowledge they sought was not the kind that was laid out in neat, easy-to-read textbooks. It was hidden in footnotes, alluded to in obscure allegorical texts, and buried in the personal journals of long-dead mages who had brushed up against the edges of reality and been driven half-mad by the experience.
Darius was the first to find something of substance. He brought a heavy, leather-bound tome to the large reading table they had claimed as their base of operations. The title was simple: "A History of the First Ascendancy."
"The Valdris ruins weren't always ruins," he said, his finger tracing a line on a faded map. "During the First Ascendancy, nearly a thousand years ago, it was a major city, a center for dimensional research. It was called 'Valdria'. According to this, the city was destroyed in a single day. The records are incomplete, but they refer to a 'dimensional cascade event'. A failed experiment that tore the city apart."
"A failed experiment?" Lyra looked up from the dense, coded text she was trying to decipher. "Or a successful one? Maybe they were trying to do the same thing the cultists were."
Thomas, looking frustrated, slammed a book shut. "I'm finding nothing on 'Chaos energy'. The word is used, but always in a philosophical sense, to mean disorder or randomness. There's no mention of it as a tangible, wieldable power. It's like it doesn't exist in any known magical framework."
"Because it doesn't," Astraeus said, remembering Kha'Zul's words. "It's not magic. It's something else. Something older. Look for texts on creation myths, pre-magical history, the time before the Ethereal. That's where you might find a hint."
meanwhile, kira had found a slim volume bound in white leather, titled "On the Nature of Soul and Essence."
"I think I have something," she said, her voice soft but excited. "It doesn't use the term 'Reality Anchor', but it talks about individuals with an 'abnormally high dimensional resonance'. People whose souls are so strongly tied to the physical plane that they act as a stabilizing force on the reality around them."
She began to read aloud. "'Such individuals are exceedingly rare, appearing perhaps once in a generation. They are not born, but made, often through a traumatic event that infuses their soul with a massive influx of pure, undiluted Ethereal Essence. This process is almost always fatal. For the one in a million who survives, their very existence becomes a law of reality. Where they stand, the world is more real, more stable. They are living keystones in the arch of existence.'"
She looked up, her eyes wide. "Astraeus… that's you. A traumatic event, a massive influx of essence… it's describing your resurrection."
Astraeus felt a chill run down his spine. He was a living keystone. It was a poetic, terrifying description. It explained why the God System had chosen him, why he was so important.
"Does it say anything else?" he asked, his voice tight."Only a warning," Kira said, her voice dropping. "'The stability such an individual provides is not without its price. Their high resonance makes them a beacon to entities that exist outside the stable framework of reality. They attract the attention of the Void, of the Ethereal, and of other, stranger things. To be a keystone is to be a target.'"
The words hung in the silent library, a stark confirmation of everything they had feared. Astraeus was not just a hero; he was a target. A lightning rod for the very forces that threatened to tear their world apart. And by standing with him, his friends had chosen to stand in the heart of the storm.