I was at the South American Ritual, which needed me the most. They were the most disorganized and least disciplined, and needed the greater harmony my direct Sublime Chord could provide, making up for the lacking and some attempted blackmailing of other nations to cough up resources so they would participate in the Ritual.

The biggest proponents of that idea had all been found minus their heads, starting a valiant effort to make up time, wasn’t that remarkable?

For the last thirty-six hours, I had been providing the Sublime Chord to them, and the irascible, untrained efforts had slowly been smoothed out and ground down as I overcame their resistances and resentments, pushing them through and bringing them into greater alignment, overcoming reluctance and instilling some camaraderie as each person surrendering to the greater whole helped build it stronger and stronger.

They could feel it, and the benefits to themselves. Without a doubt, this was the greatest Mana Meditation any of them had ever been involved in, and even if they were only taking a tiny tithe for themselves, it was still more than any of them had ever experienced, especially with the harmonics easing it all as millions of Stars pulsed and chimed with harmony in the Chord.

There were naturally those who got greedy and tried to take everything they could for themselves. They were warned exactly once, and then one of Grandfather Cloudcatcher’s elephant-sized descendants ambled over the scattered mass of mages, plucked up the offending mage and wandered off with him, while the mages in the Formation filled in the hole left behind calmly.

The Sages wanted to be in the center of the Formation and the greatest amount of Mana, and instead were scattered in appropriate places throughout it, mystified at why this was so much better than being in the center, but able to tell it was the truth.

I was in the center, and the Sublime Chord managed it all. Aie, getting all the attention and glory, that was me, wicked manipulating bitch taking all the credit that I was. Why didn’t I go back to North America and let them have the spotlight they’d worked so hard to try and steal?...

The Elemental Diamonds they’d brought floated around me. There were several dozen of the things, and we’d need at least a few, as this last-minute surge wasn’t going to help anything, and the watching Beast Emperors and Rulers were not going to lift a single talon to help us. This was ALL on us.

Swampy’s highly-trained and very skilled cadre of fellow Sound Mages were spread across the other sites, their sole duty being to echo the Sublime Chord at each site, each of them sitting at the center of a Seven Star Elemental Formation to do just that. I was modulating the Chord for each Site from my current location, gradually creating a Manafield Resonance that thrummed and started to reach across the globe... but there was no reason for them to have to reach that far, when six Portals opened up near the Ritual Sites.

It was quite transcendent when the Chords of the five Sites swept into the Broom Closet and abruptly linked up. Even the most reluctant contributors felt their souls almost leave their bodies as this Ritual instantly expanded five-fold and more, and became a truly world-wide thing of magic aborning, all in the same instant.

This, this was what Humanity, and Humanity alone was capable of accomplishing together!

The mighty Emperors of the Beasts watched from near and far as the magic of the Floodbreaker Ritual shook not just all the continents, but began to shake all the world!

------

The sixth Portal opened high in the air over a famous city on the shores of Italy, an ancient trade city built on seven fabled hills, and home to the most powerful religious organization in the world.

There were rumors and tongues wagging about the things that the Church of Light would do while so many powerful mages were occupied. Sages were away from their Families and territories, cities were left undefended, and certainly there were going to be those who were going to take advantage of this time to wreak havoc and vengeance upon preoccupied enemies, or were just opportunistic.

The Portal lasted less than fifteen seconds, but for that fifteen seconds, the Intent of a Psychic High Emperor shone through the opening, and swept over the City of Light.

While openly disdainful of the great collective effort being made, as their leaders desired, the natives of the city were still waiting to see it fail, and were among those expecting their leaders to take advantage of such foolishness in certain places.

The Intent of a High Emperor penetrated the city from its highest and most warded towers to its lowest streets and catacombs. Every soul in the entire city was paralyzed under that deadly eye and aloof judgement raking over them. The Wards of the city attempted to flare up and protect the citizens from the power, but casual Void Magic held the Wards from closing... and then lightly reached out and turned them off.

As horror swept through Archangels, hidden Creatures, and street thugs alike, all of them realizing how horribly vulnerable they were and that the whole city might die in the next second, the Portal closed and the lofty, lethal Intent of the High Emperor was gone.

---

Those Portals flicked up and down over almost every major city in the world, one after another. In Jerusalem, Seoul, Baton Rouge, Rio de Janeiro, and Paris, violent efforts that were just starting to get underway were caught in mid-operation by that all-seeing eye... and thousands of men and women around the world dropped abruptly dead, their thoughts snuffed out as casually as dust was wiped from a windowsill.

Flowing Silver High Emperor considered the whole thing a minor intellectual exercise and a tiny lesson in interfering with the beneficial plans of one of His favorite Vassals, their actions basically a challenge and insult to His own status (even if they were indeed as ignorant and rebellious as He had been informed), and HE disposed of the various traitorous aberrations in the Human Tribe with casual aplomb.

While He’d not voted in the Edict of the Emperors, He had agreed with it, and He wouldn’t have insulted His juniors by violating it. Oh, but the five years of non-intervention had ended at midnight the night before. He was free to do as He wished.

His shining silver fur was dancing with a Sublime Chord that was now echoing all around the planet, building towards being heard by every living thing alive there, and naturally He was at the center of it and enjoying the show immensely.

There were dozens of Emperor Beasts of the Mortal Realm in the area about Him, and He had even invited several from the Beast Plane. All of them were gathered around the Broom Closet Pyramid, bathing in the heightened Mana after being allowed in by the Many-tailed Silver Fox High Emperor.

Even if this Floodbreaker Ritual failed, the impact Humanity had made even attempting it was going to be key in what would happen later on.

-------

Markspace noted Flowing Silver High Emperor’s actions, something I had not asked for, although I’d figured He would take any such disruptions as a personal affront to His enjoyment of what we were doing. That the rest of the world had no idea they might be irking an unknown High Emperor by messing with what was going on was a surprise they could digest on their own time.

And here we were.

“PULSE.”

Just a word, but it was like all the continents sighed, and five lithic hearts powering the land masses of the world beat together, just as the hearts of all the Humans involved in the Floodbreaker Ritual did.

Fire and Earth Mana drawn from the heart of the world, tapping stores of it there that rendered the Air and Water Mana extant here to be little more than breezes and raindrops. It surged quietly out, the other winding traces of Mana like little razored fingers atop it.

Ice and Air Mana touched Fire, and the great, mighty, and subtle power of The Great Flood was burned through. Earth Mana touched the Water Mana that was little more than the dregs in the bottom of a teacup to it and pushed it back, breaking it, while Lightning, Chaos, and Void Mana sliced it through and ripped it apart like wet paper.

The heartbeats thrummed through the waves, driving back The Great Flood, rising from the floor of the ocean and almost seeming to lift the seabed as the blanket the spell extended across the world was forced up off the waves... and like an over-extended balloon, was sheared and popped and cut away.

The weakest parts gave way first, the magic along the shores and at the North Pole, where a Spindled Pyramid formed a fracture point that became great cracks running through the oceans of the world in all directions. The Great Flood tore and ripped, and the Floodbreaker followed it down towards Antarctica.

The Ice Emperor could certainly see it coming, steady and inevitable, beat by beat. What His reactions were He kept to Himself as His ancient and powerful spell was forced back to the shores of His land, and then shattered and tore as the Earth beneath His own feet drove it away. The anchoring Formations in His Demesne were broken and dispersed, unable to regenerate.

With a quiet final beat of a planetwide array of hearts, The Great Flood was over.

--------

It took about twelve hours of steady, pumping heartbeats, the mages in the Rituals able to feel every inch of space, every pounding beat of resistance as they bent and manhandled The Great Flood, broke it, tore it, drove it back, and finally took the last of it apart and scattered it into the Manafield.

Pretty much everyone was soaked through with sweat and exhausted, but at the same time their Stars were humming and singing like they’d never done in their whole lives. Being part of a spell resonating with the whole world’s Manafield was an experience no Human had ever had, and many of them might not ever again.

There were huge numbers of breakthroughs as we came out of the Ritual, at all levels. In South America, four half-Sages finally found the leap to greatness they’d been seeking for decades. Twoscore Mages advanced to Archmages immediately, and nearly five hundred Adepts advanced to Mage, with ten times that number of Novices who’d thought they’d hit their ceilings also advancing to Adept.

Even the Sages present benefited, as they all advanced at least one more of their Elements to the height of a Sage, advancing from Low to Junior Sages, or Junior Sages to True Sages.

Over the next few weeks and months, even more of the participants would advance to the next Tier of Magery, as their insights and the harmonic resonance did for them what life had not allowed them. Similar things were happening at all the other Ritual sites, turning the worldwide Ritual into the greatest one-day rise in power of mages from all over the world in Human history.

If those Elemental Diamonds were all drained dry helping fuel those promotions among the lower Ranks of mages, well, too bad, so sad. The wealthy mages who’d supplied them muttered curses and remonstrations about their wealth being lost, but they and those they’d brought with them had all benefited hugely, and the money they’d lost was a fraction of the value of what they’d gained.

If I’d dispersed it across far, far more than their immediate lackeys, well, that was Heaven’s horrible way of doing business in a Neutral world.

I watched the minds in the Markspace sparking and expanding in fits and gasps as the exposure to that much power and my own comprehension cracked open barriers that people in the Allegiance never imagined they’d one day obtain.

Those with Fire, Ice, and Earth Elements benefited the most, but Water and Air were next, and Void and Chaos were on the roll. Babe’s thoughts were roiling and churning with insights he’d never imagined, fully immersed in all that had happened even if he wasn’t allowed to contribute.

Contracted Beasts had been allowed to contribute, and were likewise undergoing their own breakthroughs. The Emperors took note of that, as well.

The Floodbreaker Ritual was over. The Edict of the Emperors was done, and The Great Flood was vanquished!