Hou finished the final stroke with the brush and relinquished control back to Hamar. He awoke into his own body and took a look at the scroll, a huge length of writings...
"This is way too much. Something must've gone wrong, this can't be just 100 years."
Hou commented additionally, "It does indeed feel like too long of a ti-"
As Hou was speaking, he was cut off and Hamar suddenly fell out of the air and hit the wooden floor panels below him.
After a moment to acclimatise, he brought himself back up and looked around, "I'm back?"
He stumbled up and brushed his robes, "That was sudden. Elder Future Stillness! Are you here, how long has it been?!"
***
Deep in the sky, in a rift of space, Araxis' clone split soul fell down to his knees and reached into the sky. However, as he tried to scream in pain he was hindered by the fact his throat was missing.
Not bloody or torn off, just...gone. He clawed at the air, hoping for life but eventually he gave up and dropped his hand.
A tear rolled down his cheek as starting from spots all over his body, Araxis' clone vanished. The holes of 'nothing' continued to grow and eventually his entire being was gone.
If one looked in that world, there would be no record of any memories of that clone of Araxis remaining. Following that trail, back in the 'outer world' the real Araxis coughed up a blob of blood.
He rubbed his mouth and look down at his stomach which had vanished, luckily as the main body he had to ways to survive.
"Too much causality...but it worked." He gritted through his teeth and tried to contain his thoughts. His consciousness had been heavily damaged and needed to be healed as soon as. He held out two fingers and pointed towards out into the world.
"Moooovveee!" He felt strained as he tensed his hand and eventually flicked his fingers back to his torso.
From the air, small blobs of white light condensed into droplets. As they formed, they begun moving slowly and refilled Araxis' self.
After the white lights stopped forming and he was healed, Araxis let out a sigh and stopped down onto a comfortable seat.
He tapped his wooden staff beside him and caused the ceiling above him to split. He saw the bright blue sky of mid day and took in a breath of fresh air.
"Shall we see the damages...I didn't think that the causality would be this massive." He began to float while sitting down, eventually making his way high into the sky above his room in a wizard tower.
He squinted his eyes and they glowed green, as he activated a magic technique. He scouted the perimeter around his tower and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Bad, bad, bad." Araxis swung his staff and caused a rift to open in front of him, which he entered and appeared far from where he was initially.
He was in the middle of a random forest in the north of an adjacent kingdom to the one he was based in. Though as the Archmage of the magic towers he did not need permission to enter other countries.
He looked down at the forest and grimaced. He saw a black space which encroached upon the fabric of this reality.
And making it's way out of this hole, there were various creatures. Demons, monsters, humans of other worlds.
He bit his lips to the point it bled, though when the blood dropped it merely combusted. The individual creatures weren't particularly strong but it was the principle.
"I took too much causality from the world...it's opened up connections into the Sea of Worlds. Though I succeeded in creating a true inner world for Hamar...well, that has come with the eventual destruction of my world."
Araxis' grip on his staff tightened as he thought of a solution. He thought for a long while, he needed to close these spaces or at least restrict the flow.
But how can he do this when they are caused by low causality, he can't use causality to fix them. He spent many of his stockpile of thoughts to come up with a solution.
It used many of his thoughts, but after some time he created a solution which he believed would mitigate many of the issues he had.
Araxis held out his staff and spun it in the air before shouting forward, casting a spell on the world. He weaved mana and remnant causality to create a solution which had both upsides and downsides.
As he started to cast the spell, the cracks in the world grew. The connection to the Sea of Worlds became stronger.
But then, the creatures coming out changed. The composition of refugees turned to a specific wavelength.
Araxis thought while he casted his spell, "If I cannot completely close these holes then I can only attune them to fit within the causality of this world...hopefully overtime acclimating and allowing me to close the rifts."
What he was doing was changing the creatures that entered so that they fit the framework of this world, which would allow the causality of the world to remain untouched...and over time the creatures would become a normal part of this world, and contribute to the causality.
Araxis breathed out a sigh of relief and looked down at the rifts, "I shall have to make these fit into this world now...we shall call them "demonic rifts" and the creatures "demons". I'll get all the sub-towers to spread the knowledge and prepare...this world will soon change."
He looked up into the sky and rubbed his temples, "It will be a long long time...And I still have to hope Hamar can solve the external world. I don't suppose I'll be able to give him any help now, the causality needed to mess with him now that he has a true inner world, phew. Must be immense."
He cracked his neck as he wondered whether all his hard work will have paid off. All of his work in creating the external miniature world which Hamar resides...will he be able to get rid off 'them'?