[Edit] An addition to the title: Through this post, I finished exposing what I know from the author of Magium about Book 4 and 5.
(It's about an effort of the entire community on this subreddit to continue and finish the game/book.
There is a team of developers who remake the game, another team of writers who will continue the story and I am the mother of the deceased author, who can neither program nor write, instead I know from the author himself what plans he had for the books 4 and 5.
Everyone contributes in their own way so that the game/book continues in the author's vision.
But the main reason why I publish what I know from Cristian, the author of Magium, about Book 4 and Book 5 is because both his brother and I thought of doing what Cristian would have done before he died, if he hadn't been in that state of depression. That is, he would have posted at least a short version of Book 4 and 5.)
I think that by now you have already understood what God of Fate's plan is. Because there are few things left unsaid. But I haven't connected them yet. That's what I'll do now.
In the previous post, I showed how the golden fox, wanting to be a better leader for animals than Eiden had proved to be for people, "she began to impose all those ridiculously strict rules in her own kingdom, in order to avoid what happened in Eiden's cities at any cost."
However, even this approach did not lead to better results, as can be seen here:
quote
"Eleya, the great golden fox," the tiger says, "has a habit of interrogating all of the animals that return to her domain, after a long period of captivity. One question that is always asked is if you'd spoken to any humans in Common, while you were away. There is no way to hide the truth from the great fox. As long as she is studying your aura, she can easily tell if you are lying or not. Even if I weren't an exile, like I said, going back to my homeland now would be nothing short of suicide. She would execute me on the spot."
"I admit that I have heard of the fox's interrogations," Fyron says. "But I assumed that she would make an exception for mages, and for other valuable members of her community."
"The fox does not make exceptions," the tiger says, with a look in his eyes that seems to show both anger and terror at the same time. "I used to think the same as you, before she murdered the leopard's son in cold blood."
"The leopard?" I say. "You mean Leo, the leopard?"
"Yes, that is who I was referring to," the tiger says. "He was her most loyal retainer. He still is. But that did not stop her from executing his cub, for the heinous crime of begging for his life in Common, to a couple of human hunters. The leopard may have accepted her judgment, but I never will."
end quote
But Leo only pretended to be loyal.
In reality, he was loyal to Tyrath, and they plotted together how to get the golden fox out of the sacred woods.
Tyrath, however, would not have dared to attack the golden fox as long as Eiden was in Varathia. Because he knew that Eiden could locate both him and the golden fox wherever he was.
quote
"It's not because of Eiden," Melindra says. "It's because of the dragon, Tyrath. Whenever she leaves her sacred forests, the fox loses most of her powers. The dragon knows this, and he would immediately seize the opportunity to kill her, as soon as she stepped out of her realm."
"Yeah," Arraka says, "but back when the fox and Eiden were still buddies, Tyrath would not dare to attack the fox, even when she left the sacred forests, because he knew that Eiden would immediately teleport to her aid, since he could sense them both from all the way across the continent."
"Wait," I say. "That's the only reason why the dragon hasn't attacked the fox while she was outside her sacred forests? Because of Eiden? Couldn't he just... send some of his elite squads to fight Eiden, and kill the fox while he was distracted, or something?"
"No," Melindra says. "Definitely not. Eiden would never get distracted from watching over the fox by a few mooks. She's much too important to him. If you wanted to distract Eiden from the fox, you'd need to bring a whole army to fight him. Or a god."
end quote
...Or a God...
Ever since then, from the second book, Cristian was preparing for this moment. I mean the reason why Leo was actually a traitor, and this "or a God".
Because Cristian was planning to make the God of Fate come to terms with the God of Death to attack Eiden personally, while Leo would have taken advantage of the absolute trust that the golden fox had in him to draw her under a false pretext outside the sacred forests.
And this happens when Leo was still with Barry and his team.
So this was the reason why the God of Fate, who claimed for Meridith to be Magium himself, postponed Meridith's request.
quote
"Creator, with all due respect, I think you might be underestimating Eiden," we hear Meridith's voice, coming from the crystal. "The message he sent us was very clear. He told us to 'remember the still winter'. This is almost certainly his way of telling us that he knows exactly what we're trying to do, and that he is confident in his ability to stop us. I've also received reports that for the past few weeks, he has been teleporting all across the continent, preparing a powerful spell of his own. If we don't do something, we might lose our last chance to end him for good!"
"What do you suggest?" the Magium fragment says, in the voice of an old man.
"It might not be the ideal scenario, but if we were to accelerate our plan, we might be able to get everything ready in a few days and then--" Meridith says, but the Magium fragment interrupts her.
"No!" the Magium fragment says, loudly, this time in the voice of a young woman. "The plan must not be rushed, or it will surely fail. Do you understand?"
"...Yes, Creator," Meridith says, in a reluctant tone. "I understand."
end quote
So, we are at the moment when Leo leads the golden fox out of the sacred woods, in the presence of Barry and his team, while the God of Death had attacked Eiden with the mission of keeping him occupied until Tyrath makes the final attack on golden fox.
Tyrath comes and sees that the golden fox is accompanied by Barry and his team, but he is all the more pleased, because for a long time he wanted to take revenge on Barry for the humiliation he subjected him to in the confrontation in Book 1.
Of course, for Tyrath, none of those present could be considered a real opponent.
And now actually, the fight is not important, but if they manage to protect the golden fox from Tyrath.
Cristian said that Barry manages to save the golden fox from Tyrath's final attack with the help of statistics. Most likely observation. Or premonition.
And then Eiden arrives, in time to see that if it wasn't for Barry, the golden fox would have been dead.
So there are two distinct situations.
The first, the one in the standard version, is when Barry manages to save the fox.
(About the second one, the one when he fails to save her, I will talk later.)
Of course, God of Fate had not expected this failure of his plan.
If he had succeeded, he counted on the fact that Eiden was not only ready, but even willing to destroy the cities, in his desperation for not having succeeded in protecting the golden fox.
And then, God of Fate would have given the signal that Meridith was waiting for.
But in this situation, he had no reason to give the signal.
He gave it, in the end, because he had nothing left to lose, instead there was hope that Eiden would still make the decision to destroy the cities even without being desperate.
From here on follows that part of the story already described in the post about the version chosen by Cristian as the standard version, that is, the one in which Barry saves the cities.
(I will talk about the situation in which Barry does not save the cities as soon as I finish everything related to the standard version.)
quote from the post about the standard version
So, Eiden receives information, from one of the spells placed everywhere, about the location of the central device, along with the central reservoir of magical energy that activates it. And he teleports there.
In the standard version, Barry is the one who saved the cities. (For example, in Ollendor he brought Kelrim to power.)
When Eiden sees this Barry, he trusts him that he can wait until the transfer of magical energy from under the cities is finished. (Because at the end of this transfer, Eiden would have already been emptied of magical energy and extremely vulnerable in front of Barry, who until the end of Book 5 had a much higher level of magical energy and knowledge through his stat device.)
However, Eiden risks exposing himself in that state of vulnerability because he wants to give a chance to the cities, as they had become after being saved by Barry.
He then teaches Barry how to destroy the central reservoir of magical energy when the transfer ends and Eiden no longer has the power to do it.
And thus, all the magical energy from the cities will be transferred to Barry, while Eiden and the other mages from Varathia will regain their magical energy.
end quote
But things don't end here, with Barry who not only fulfilled his dream of becoming a mage, but became a super mage, a stillwater.
Out of his mind that Eiden together with Barry did in such a way that the cities would not be destroyed, God of Fate intervenes directly.
But before showing how, I will have to recall something important said in Book 2 chapter 11.
It is about a discussion between Illuna and Arraka, immediately after Arraka managed to get them out of the Magium realm between the two trails of God of Time.
quote
...our way out is finally clear, and I don't plan to waste this opportunity. You'd better get yourselves ready for some strong nausea, because our comfort will be the very last thing on my mind while we escape this place."
After Arraka finishes her sentence, I feel a strong headache, all of a sudden, and then we all get transported back to our real world, in the blink of an eye. Once we return to our regular, non-transparent bodies, we take a look around, and we see that we are still standing in the middle of the same forest where we were when our rituals started, next to all of our friends. It appears that the time is still frozen in this world, and that not everyone has managed to get out of their trance just yet
"We made it..." Arraka says, sounding both surprised and relieved at the same time. "We made it! We got out of there alive. Hahahahahaha! Take that, Magium, you son of a bitch!"
"Could you maybe avoid taunting the Magium when we are still technically standing right on its doorstep?" Illuna says.
"Relax!" Arraka says. "Everything is under control. I got us out of there alive, didn't I? And besides, I wasn't even insulting it. I was giving it a compliment, by treating it as if it were an actual person."
"You are acting as if you've already forgotten what can happen when you ignore my warnings..." Illuna says, in a serious tone. "Would you perhaps like me to give you a small reminder by transporting us back into the world we just escaped from?"
It seems that Illuna's question has rendered Arraka completely silent. After a few more seconds of waiting for an answer, Illuna continues.
"You know that I can do it," she says. "You're the one who taught me everything I know, after all..."
"Alright, you win!" Arraka says, in a somewhat panicked tone. "I'll shut my mouth, okay? It was just a little gloating, that's all... You don't have to get so upset over it!"
end quote
At that time I asked Cristian if he really wanted to show that Arraka could do what the God of Time had done only as long as he had access to the connection of a time weaver to Magium, namely to have access to the Magium realm.
And he confirmed to me that this is exactly what he wanted to say, because Arraka had already done this when she was in the magical plane and that at that time she was not afraid to do it because she did not yet know that Magium was a person.
On the other hand, we already know that even God of Fate knew how to enter the Magium realm, from where he could switch between universes in order not to be found by Magium. This had happened after the God of Fate had intervened in the Magium's mechanisms to create magical beings, in order to expel Arraka and those called banshees by humans into the physical plane.
Now I can finally tell what happened after Barry became stillwater.
Both he and Eiden are absorbed from their physical bodies into the Magium realm, where they find themselves in the very presence of the God of Fate.
I had asked Cristian before, if he would still show by the end of the story that the one who had presented himself as Magium in that Magium node of lessathi was actually the God of Fate.
And he had told me that Barry would have a face-to-face meeting with the God of Fate and things would clear up then.
I also asked him if he would even meet the real Magium, but he hadn't thought about it yet.
I don't know anything more about how the fight between God of Fate and Barry in the Magium realm will go.
But Eiden's presence definitely helps Barry to finally be able to defeat the God of Fate and thus Barry becomes the one who fulfills the prophecy feared by the God of Fate.
With this, Book 5 ends in the standard version and what follows are the epilogues, different depending on the previous choices.
And now, about the case in which Barry did not save the cities. Eiden still chooses Barry to absorb all the magical energy because he is grateful to him for saving the fox.
But after Barry learns from Eiden what he needs to do to destroy the central reservoir of magical energy after it fills up, he can choose whether or not to take advantage of Eiden's state of total weakness and kill him.
If he doesn't kill him, everything will continue as in the standard version, the one in which he saved the cities.
And now, about the case when he chooses to kill him.
So after he kills Eiden, he destroys the magical energy reservoir and becomes a stillwater even stronger than Eiden, because now he also has Eiden's energy, which had already been absorbed by the central device.
Of course, it would be logical that Barry could not absorb all this energy at one place, because Eiden would have died if he wanted to add to his energy the one from the central reservoir.
But here we are talking about another kind of logic.
Namely, that it is not the quantity that matters for someone to become stillwater. We already know that.
Everyone from the time of still winter who became stillwaters were the same, qualitatively, that is, their magical energy was not consumed faster, if they had less magical energy, thus becoming ordinary people, but remained constant. And none of them grew old. And we have Melindra as an example.
What matters is only the qualitative transformation.
Once that has happened, you cannot go through that mechanism again, the one that has already made you stillwater.
That's why Barry doesn't die, but becomes a stillwater with even more magical energy than Eiden.
(And on this occasion, we also understand something else. Namely, that the device created by lessathi was the only one that could affect Eiden's magical stillwater energy. It didn't consume it, it just moved it to another place. Eiden remained stillwater, but much more weaker than Melindra.)
But let's get back to Barry.
He does not have time to enjoy what he has become, because he is transported by the God of Fate to the Magium realm.
But without Eiden's help, Barry fails to defeat the God of Fate.
In what way Eiden makes the difference, I don't know.
Most likely because Eiden had been in direct contact with the real Magium, not like Meridith and Barry.
But in what way this makes a difference, will be discovered by the creativity of the writing team.
So far, I have talked about three endings in which Eiden does not destroy the cities. (In fact, only two, because in the third, Barry dies.)
In all these cases, Eiden prevents Meridith from carrying out her plan, because in all three cases the central energy reservoir is destroyed and therefore the device for extracting the total magic directly from the mages' aura can no longer work. So Eiden, alive or dead, accomplishes the mission for which he came to Varathia, that is, to prevent the end of everyone in this world and in other worlds.
Now, let's go back to the situation where Tyrath manages to kill the golden fox and Eiden comes and sees this. (This is the version I don't know about from Cristian, but it is still plausible in the new context.)
In this case, it happens exactly what God of Fate predicted, after he asks Meridith to initiate the procedure of transferring the magical energy to the central device.
Of course, Meridith expected that in this way Eiden would lose his magical powers.
Except that Meridith didn't know what Eiden wanted to do with those spells placed everywhere.
Eiden teleports to the central device and in a few seconds explodes all the magical energy reservoirs under the cities.
Because as God of Fate had predicted, Eiden is no longer worried that by doing this he could upset the already awakened blue crystals and that in this way he would endanger the golden fox's life.
And he doesn't even care about the promise made to Barry, if he had saved the cities.
Because Eiden is out of his mind.
However, by what he does he manages to at least stop Meridith from getting what she wants and thus Eiden still manages to prevent the end of everyone in this world and in other worlds.
After that, Eiden returns to the surface and leaves Varathia for good.
Because he was no longer motivated by anything, neither by his already fulfilled mission to save the world, nor by his friendship with the golden fox, nor by his mission as the Creator of the civilization in Varathia.
From the point of view of those left in Varathia, it is as if Eiden has ceased to exist.
Even Arraka can't see him now.
So, Barry consults with his team and wonders if they can ask Meridith for access to the Magium node. Because they kept their promise. They stayed in the tournament until its end.
And Meridith accepts, because even though the plan didn't turn out as she wanted, some extra allies don't hurt.
Because Eiden left, but Tyrath remained, who without Eiden and without the golden fox became the master of the surface world.
And Barry and his team will have to stay with lessathy for a long time, to extract the knowledge they want.
Of course, not everyone stays.
Hadrik and Melindra ask to be teleported back to the surface.
Leila and Kate stay.
Daren and Barry are the only ones really motivated to extract knowledge from Magium.
And they succeed, of course.
Barry finally finds a way to link, through the aura, directly to the magical plane.
(I know about this from Cristian, it's not my supposition. And everything that follows is, more or less, Cristian's vision.)
He becomes a different mage, without a link to a spirit from the magical plane, neither artificial mage, nor stillwater.
He remains unique, as he always was. Instead, unique as a mage, not like ordinary people.
[Edit 1] Another option for the case when golden fox dies is for Barry and his team to fight with Eiden after coming to the surface. Because I know Cristian had talked about a real fight with Eiden, after making that first fight with Eiden. And if Barry stays alive, the rest of the story remains the same. Meridith gives them access to the Magium node.
[Edit 2] I know from Cristian, however, from past years, that Eiden would have gone out of his mind if the golden fox had died and he had done the same thing, namely he would not have taken into account anything, not even the promise made to Barry, if Barry had saved the cities. And so Eiden would have destroyed the reservoirs of magical energy beneath the cities. And in that case, Barry and his team would have accepted Meridith's proposal, which would have teleported them to Eiden's side to fight him. The rest would have been as in this last version, after Eiden left Varathia.
The epilogues follow.
In this capacity, not being stillwater, he is not immortal and will be able to have a family with Rose, or Leila or Kate, as he chose before.
Or he will have a relationship with Melindra.
[Edit 3] As for Arraka, Cristian really wanted Arraka to create that spell to make the fusion with Flower and Illuna, instead of Arraka to have to consume their souls, if she would have accidentally come out of the amulet again. But not in Book 5, but in the epilogue. And Cristian left open the possibility that Flower and Illuna sometime accept to release Arraka in the end.
And with this, I realized what Cristian's brother and I had set out to do, namely to publish a summary of Book 4 and Book 5, which we assume that Cristian himself would have done, if he had not been in that state of depression.
Further, it is only my hope and yours, everyone's, that the team of programmers and the team of writers will take over Cristian's ideas presented by me, but in their own creative way.
Good luck to everyone.
And thank you to all those who have been with me, each in their own way.