"Eh, I can probably check that without too much trouble."

"I'd appreciate that very much. Imagine how pleased they'd be to find that they weren't the last people alive anywhere at all."

He laughs. "No kidding, wow."

"And anyone who's still alive is probably good at painting without exploding or whatever!"

"You'd think!"

"Or they just live on an island, I guess. A butte. I don't know how good fiends are or were at swimming or climbing."

"You'd think if an island was all it took then more people would've lived, but maybe this is the shit continent with no good islands, or something."

"It's very dry, some islands might have been isthmused to death."

He giggles.

So does Cor. "A painting to appear stuff magic system is basically the opposite of mine."

"Yeah, it's kinda funny, isn't it? Learn to do both and you're all set. Except for the disappearing planets part, I guess."

"It doesn't have to disappear planets in particular, I think if you dumped enough stuff into a disappearance point it'd stop growing. The problem is they grow faster as they get bigger and/or used more - not sure which on current data."

"...huh. And they don't get bigger when you put more stuff in, they get—full?"

"I guess you could say they get full. Small enough points, if you try hard, you can pile things into fast enough that they can't keep up. If you know what you're doing you can use that to fine-tune gates, which are made from disappearance points that are peeled apart from themselves and installed in separate locations. The peeling calls for precise timing relative to the growth of the point."

"Weird. Kinda cool though. Probably a good thing I started out in Suranse and not your world, I'd have way too much fun painting blood on things."

"If you get carried away you lose toes!"

"Like I said, good thing I didn't grow up around your magic!"

"You'd be toeless! It'd ruin your symmetry."

"Can't have that! Luckily I have different magic, and so far it seems like it wants me to keep my toes."

"Good for it."

"Speaking of which, I think I'll go back outside and argue with the desert some more."

He puts the textbook down with the other two books and heads for the entrance tunnel.

Cor confirms that he can't read the books, and follows.

He spreads his wings and strides up the hill, and the ground shivers slightly in his wake. Shoots of grass poke up tentatively from the dead dry dirt, withering from the moment the sun touches them. Tias growls under his breath.

A fountain of sparkling water erupts from the ground at his feet, arcing ten feet in the air before it splashes back down and begins to flow down the hill. In a wave that starts there and spreads outward, the dry ground transmutes to rich soil. Grass grows, and flowers, and wild berry bushes, and eventually trees. The fountain calms to a trickling spring as the trees grow tall enough to shade it.

"Pretty! Are you doing your own design work here or is it like your Sphere?"

"I dunno, little of both?"