The latest chapters of Magic: The Gathering’s Phyrexia: All Will Be One story have revealed the new, grim reality of the multiverse.
The story picks up with the siege team of planeswalkers heading into the Dross Pits – a sphere green with rot and decay – where Phyrexians fight each other to the death under the watchful eye of Sheoldred.
Upon their arrival, Elspeth distributes small vials of halo to each planeswalker. After consuming his portion, Jace crumbles to the ground in debilitating pain, as the mental clarity provided by the halo has renewed his telepathic connection to Vraska. After regaining his composure, Jace informs the party that Vraska is in terrible pain and storms off to save her.
Despite attempts to change his mind, the party realizes that Jace won’t be stopped and since he has the sylex, must follow him into the pits to save Vraska. The party quickly makes their way across the sphere, hidden from the warring Phyrexians by Jace’s illusion magic, but upon finding Vraska, the Gorgon has been beaten, bloodied, and infected by the forces of Phyrexia.
After slaying the approaching Phyrexians, Jace rushes to Vraska, who informs him it is too late to save her. Blinded by love and grief, Jace refuses to leave her side – relinquishing the sylex to Kaya as the party moves forward without him. In an attempt to ease her pain, Jace shows Vraska an elaborate illusion of Ravnica, but even Jace’s magic couldn’t prevent the inevitable, as the now compleated Vraska stabs Jace, infecting him. Realizing his mistake and the inevitability of his condition, Jace rushes to rejoin the others.
After leaving Jace, the party encounters a huge force of Phyrexians that were once in-fighting but have since turned their attention to the party of planeswalkers. Realizing the futility in fighting the army, Nahiri summons all of her remaining strength and breaks apart the floor of the sphere, collapsing everyone into Elesh Norn’s Fair Basilica below.
After recovering from the collapse, the party makes their way across the sphere, destined for the Phyrexian’s imitation of the World Tree. Upon arriving at the “tree”, the party makes their way inside, only to find Karn, “broken open, vivisected, and spread across the platform.”
Karn reveals that the Phyrexian infection has already began to spread through the Seedcore, but if they hurry they may still be able to prevent the destruction of some of the planes by using the sylex to destroy the fake World Tree. Unable to save Karn, the remaining party pushes forward into the tree, toward the core, but are intercepted by the compleated Ajani and Tibalt. With personal connections to both, Elspeth and Tyvar opt to stay behind to fight them, while Kaya, Kaito, and what’s left of Jace move to the final destination.
The clash between the former friends ends with Elspeth and Tyvar victorious, and both rush to rejoin the party. As Jace, Kaya, and Kaito reach the core, the reality of what detonating the sylex could do to the multiverse becomes clearer to Kaya and Kaito, and the duo attempts to stop Jace from moving forward with the plan. Despite working together, Jace’s illusions keep the other planeswalkers at bay, and he activates the sylex.
In the nick of time, Elspeth drops from above and manages to spear Jace with her sword and wrestle the sylex away. Drawing the remainder of her powers, Elspeth planeswalks away with the detonating sylex in hand.
With Elspeth gone along with the sylex, the party recognizes their defeat. The multiverse may be safe from the effects of the sylex, but not from the Phyrexians. Before anyone can rest, footsteps echo from across the bridge – Elesh Norn, along with her army and compleated versions of Tamiyo, Nissa, and Nahiri approach.
“With that, Elesh Norn raised her hand, clicking her perfect claws together, and the invasion began.”
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Catch Up
Phyrexia: All Will Be One is scheduled to release on February 10. View our official preview gallery.