Mm, 'come apart' isn't quite it. It was just...shrinking. I don't know what will happen if we fail, but that will probably continue until...

Oh, no- when others here use "Alchemy" they mean something that's a little different. From what I understand, it is still a kind of transformative application in other worlds, but they place much more emphasis on small physical things, and less on viewing it as a larger force.