The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 28,29,30

Chapter 28

Bal’gon

Constructing a mixer artifice to suit Theo’s needs required the keenest mind in the region. Throk acted annoyed when he was called back to Broken Tusk. But his annoyed expression melted away after a while. Especially after he saw Tresk standing in his workshop. The alchemist's ploy to pull at the grumpy marshing’s heartstrings paid off, earning him the attention of the artisan for a while.

Of course, Throk had more ideas than the artificer apprentices to improve their design. He came up with a modular design, allowing Theo and Salire to swap the mixers into their current stack of distillation equipment. If they wanted to make a Refined Essence line, they could easily swap the gear attached to the stills. Once they were ready to use the same stills to use the mixers, a few turns of a few collars would have the equipment swapped and ready to go.

Throk pulled Tresk aside after creating the first full-scale version of the mixer and handing it over. Unlike the first attempts, it was about as large as Tresk herself. While this would allow for considerably more vapor to be processed at once, it also required much more mana. Theo pulled the item into his inventory, rubbing his hands with excitement. Throk gave his daughter a tight hug as they left, and he could feel the warmth flowing from his Tara’hek partner.

“Let’s get this back to the lab,” Theo said, departing with Salire before things got too sappy. Of course, they wouldn’t. Tresk and Throk just weren’t like that. They were lizards, after all.

“We have enough Refined Bound Healing Essence to test this out. Plenty of bound healing dilution, too.”

Another hired helper was working in the Newt and Demon today. Theo didn’t know what kind of deal Salire had given them, but he didn’t mind. Things had been too busy for him to babysit every project around, but there were a few things in town that needed his attention. He couldn’t help but think about them as he ascended the stairs. When they were done with their testing today, he would head down to the underground town to upgrade it.

“We need to force Hanan to make a choice soon.” Theo popped the condenser from one still, attacking the mixer instead. “Can’t have a huge city outside of my town unless they wanna join up.”

“Are you still determined to let him make his own choice?”

Theo was less certain about that by the day. At first Hanan seemed like a guy who was overwhelmed with choices. Now he was taking too long on purpose, dragging this out as long as he could. Qavell had been reduced to so few people, it wouldn’t be hard to overpower them. Not that the alchemist had plans to do so, but the option was on the table. For now, he only wanted to concern himself with alchemy.

“I don’t trust myself to make the Drogramathi mana,” Salire said, smiling at Theo. “Only the big strong champion can do that.”

“I’m sure you’ll get it once you’re high enough.” Theo laughed to himself, placing his hand over the second part of the mixer. He drained some of his mana, watching as the liquid mana filled it half-way. Each section of this new mixer could hold one-hundred units. The device was shaped like a big tuning fork with tubes entering or exiting in three spots. Those one-hundred units were measured for gas, resulting in half-unit containers for liquids. “This will boost our quality.”

Salire nodded, kicking the still on to feed the device vaporized essence. Theo hit the switch on the other still, feeding bound dilution to the mix. The apprentice alchemist turned to her notebook, writing everything about the process. They would need to amend their book. The alchemist had a moment to watch the process as it worked, making sure everything blended well. There were no problems so far.

“Man, I’m feeling some weird stuff again,” Theo said, looking at the ceiling of the lab. “First when Fenian vanished, then an hour later this. What’s going on?”

Salire laughed. “You remind me of my grandmother. She swore she could tell a storm was coming by the way her tusks felt.”

Theo shook his head, smiling at the idea of an old half-ogre predicting the weather with her tusks. “Looks like the mixing process isn’t instant.” He cut the flow of essence from the still before turning the heat off. “We’ll need some tanks to hold the gas form of the essence so we can feed it to the mixer slowly.”

“The pressure tanks can hold essence in gas form forever, right?” Salire shrugged. “I guess I’m going back to ask Throk for more stuff.”

Theo and Salire planned out some holding tanks for this new process. They had wanted to take a shortcut, but realized it wasn’t possible. Essences and bound dilutions boiled at different rates, requiring them to do these steps separately. Sledge was still out for the count, so the tanks would need to be placed within the lab itself. As long as they didn’t explode, that was fine. The alchemist sent his apprentice off, heading to the mine to upgrade the underground town.

“About time we upgraded that thing,” Sarisa said, jogging after the alchemist.

Theo had withdrawn the Monster Cores set aside for the project. He was eager to get to work on the project, putting the whole underground problem behind him. It left a bad taste in his mouth after Twist revealed himself to be something other than a simple underground elf. The implications of that level of betrayal would be hard to process for a while. But why did he need a ride to the place Qavell once was if he was some powerful guy. The alchemist shook his head, dislodging through distracting thoughts.

“Alise bought up some towers, but my golems have been doing a decent job against the pale elves.” Theo nodded as he strode past the smelter buildings. “I guess I expected a bigger threat.”

“When an underground dragon goes missing, I think you should be worried no matter what.” Rowan scoffed, shaking his head. Yeah, the idea of an entire dragon vanishing without warning was a bit much.

The miners were working, even with the stuff going on in the underground. Theo nodded and greeted them as he passed, sending his senses down to his golems. They had been killing both elves and monsters down there, although the golems didn’t care which. Several of his creations had been destroyed, but that was unsurprising. They took orders from the adventurers, and had been sent out to meet oncoming attacks. As predicted, cave-ins were nothing to the pale elves.

“Let’s get some walls going,” Theo said, approaching the monolith for Bal’gon. “I guess we should just do a standard upgrade path, right?”

“I really don’t see why not.” Sarisa approached the monolith, looking at how curiously the thing was shaped. Stone Walls and Gates first, then Defensive Emplacements after that. That’s all you need.”

Theo looked around the abandoned area. It looked much like it had when everyone fled aside from the new structures that had been erected. He shoved Monster Cores into the monolith, watching as the level of the building went up. His first selection was for walls, while his second was for roads. There were no other good options, as a water tower upgrade seemed lame. The alchemist paused at Level 15 to inspect the town after selecting the last upgrade.

[Tiny Town]

Name: Bal’gon

Owner: Theo Spencer

Leader: Rowan Fletcher

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 15 (4%)

Core Buildings:

NONE

Defensive Emplacements:

NONE

Upgrades:

[Stone Walls and Gates]

[Stone Roads]

[Defensive Emplacements]

The ground had rumbled when he selected the walls upgrade. Much like those in Broken Tusk, the walls down here were high. The battlements running their length would provide defenders breathing room against attackers. Although they hadn’t added emplacements yet, Alise had bought enough to make any attacker think twice. Theo made his way to those battlements, finding the bodies of monsters down below and his golems moving between them.

“Let’s put our money to work,” Theo said. He selected a spread for ten Chain Lightning towers along the length of the wall. “Once these are in place, Throk can hook them up to be completely automated.”

“Should take pressure off the adventurers.” Rowan peered out over the wall, tearing his attention from Theo’s work. A tower sizzling with the power of lightning sprung up, ready to lash out at any attackers. “Hey, is that the new guy?”

Theo stepped to the side, squinting against the darkness to spot a human man in the distance. It was the new guy. Jan swung a large hammer at a goblin-like monster in, caving its head in. So the outworlder had decided to stay. The man that set off a chain reaction of unknowable impact was a hammer-using servant of Glantheir. That would have been interesting enough, but he seemed like he was having a good time.

“What are your thoughts on him?” Theo asked.

“Ask again in a few weeks and I’ll tell you.” Rowan shrugged, seeming almost unwilling to form an opinion. “I can’t really get a read on him.”

Theo nodded, silently approving of the answer. He had the same impression of the man. Jan was impossible to understand. Like a cornered animal that gave up out of nowhere to work with his captor. Perhaps he was just waiting for the right time. He knew who Twist was, after all. And Twist knew him. What that meant was anyone’s guess, but Jan had already spilled the beans. That included making an official report to the town, which had been immortalized in writing. 

“Something weird was happening back where I’m from. Hundreds of years before I left.” Theo sighed as he leaned against the wall. “I’m not sure I want to know what it was.”

“Don’t be a baby.” Sarisa punched him in the arm. It hurt less than he expected. “You’re always in the middle of this crap, so put on your big boy pants and deal with it.”

“I don’t blame Theo for being confused and cautious.” Rowan came in with a rare disagreement with his sister. Well, it was a disagreement with Theo. They were normally a united front to make fun of the alchemist. “Thinking about the way Twist walked around the town when he was part of something so big makes me anxious.”

Sarisa pursed her lips, gritting her teeth for a few moments before nodding. “I guess you’re right.”

Theo checked his interface, finding a note from Salire. It would take a few hours for Throk to work on the new pressure tanks, so she told him to have them ready for tomorrow. That worked for the alchemist, as he felt himself flagging for the day. With little more to do for the day, he wanted to relax and have some food. He thought about going to Tero’gal, but decided that he had enough of that for now. The others would enjoy tea in his realm, but he didn’t need to be with them right now. He needed food and a bath.

“That’s enough of this for now. I’ll put in a work order to have these towers automated. The adventurers can feed them motes by hand for now.” Theo looked over the small amount of work he did today. It wasn’t much, but he was proud. “Anyone hungry? Wanna go to Xam’s?”

Tresk appeared next to Theo in an instant. “I do!”

“Then let’s go.” Theo pushed forward, leading the way up the tunnels to the surface. “I wasn’t made to live in the underground. Not again.”

“Oh! Were your people underground dwellers on Earth?” Sarisa asked, jumping up-and-down with excitement.

“You bet he was,” Tresk said, jabbing a finger at Sarisa. “They lived underground and ate dirt. Theo’s old body is actually half-mole.”

Theo shot her a look, narrowing his eyes.

“Really?” Sarisa asked, eyes glimmering.

“Yup.” Tresk struck a pose, holding the procession up. “Let me tell you a story about the time Theo became king of the Mole People. It all started with a stone, or so the legend says…”

Tresk’s story was nonsense. She told it as the party marched to the Marsh Wolf Tavern. Theo tried not to shake his head as much as he wanted, since Sarisa bought most of the story. On their way to the tavern, they picked up a few citizens that wanted to come along for a meal. When the party settled into the second floor of the tavern, they had to spread out over several tables.

Theo paid little attention to his meal as he considered how things were going. The train to the north was going well, along with the various roads spanning those new chasms. His new form of alchemy would produce fourth tier essence tomorrow at the earliest, so that was good. There might have been entities running around the world that he couldn’t hope to understand, but he was a step closer to pushing through the void.

As always, there had been some bumps along the way. Jan and Twist were a concern. There was a monster wave that would hit in a few days—if Xol’sa’s calculations were correct. The extra-planar elf claimed the arcane math for that kind of thing was tricky. But the underground was sorted, Qavell was stable, and the food set before him was good enough to draw his attention away from his problems.

“Is Xam’s getting better at cooking?” Theo asked.

Tresk sighed. “Yeah. I love your cooking, Sarisa… But you don’t have a core.”

Sarisa nodded. “I won’t pretend as though I can compare.”

“I like your cooking better.” Rowan grumbled as he pushed the food around his plate.

The group chatted around the table until the sun threatened to fall below the horizon. After that they retreated to the bathhouse. While Theo had neglected his private bath, it was still there waiting for him. The entire party soaked in the large natural-style tub and let felt their collective tension walk away.

Theo breathed a sigh of relief, the sensation of the bath’s bolstering effects seeping into his bones. With so many things settling around town, he appreciated how the warm pool acted as a bookend. Heading into the Dreamwalk would make him feel even better. Tomorrow would bring with it alchemy. If he had enough time, he could also dive into the void in an attempt to push past the barrier.

Chapter 29

The Next Exploit

Theo looked over what he imagined Throk would come up with. It was an enlarged version of the mixer artifice the marshling had created before, recreated in the Dreamwalk. The imagined realm still pushed back when he tried to create finalized potions, but he dedicated himself to testing the timing and mixture ratios for this new form of alchemy. Without the Dreamwalk, he wouldn’t have been able to test for the flow of mana, and he realized he would need some kind of mana storage device. Not the ones that drew mana from the air, but one that stored liquid mana.

One problem at a time.

Working to increase willpower had become tedious. Not because the act was hard, but because Theo wasn’t sure what he was working toward. More golems with better range was great, but he didn’t know where that ended. The only thing that helped him press forward was the idea that he could have an army of golems to defy reason. More golems meant less people on the front lines, putting themselves at risk when a being without a soul could do so.

After being satisfied with his work for the night, he went off to find Tresk and Alex. The goose’s body was sleeping out in the gardens of the manor, no longer able to fit within the building itself. “How much bigger is she gonna get?”

Alex swooped through the air, pulling flaming vines from nowhere to wrap around a monster’s neck. She honked in defiance as Tresk fell from the giant goose, slashing at a large ogre-like monster with both daggers. She did a pose as the monster vanished, bowing as though an audience existed to care.

“Alex thinks she’s close to something new,” Tresk said, performing some stretches to loosen up. “Something special.”

Theo scratched his chin, thinking about what it could be. Alex had grown in size and gained new affinities. He had an idea for what might happen to her, but was unsure. It was the same thing he had been hoping for some of his buildings in town. Evolution. Ever since gaining the ability to evolve his cores—of which only his Governance Core had evolved—he was interested in the topic. No one had brought him information on the topic, which was frustrating at first.

But when Theo ran up against a problem that someone in his circle knew nothing about, he assumed it was uncommon enough to be novel. Novel things, like his new alchemy technique, might be caused by the way the system functioned. When someone reached a new height in any discipline, it filled in the blanks. That was his theory about this new tier of Drogramath alchemy, and he hoped it applied elsewhere.

“Alex, show him your Fire Lance attack,” Tresk said, slapping Alex on the side.

Alex honked, opening her beak and aiming into the distance. A hissing ball of fire appeared, reshaped only moments after she generated it. It took the shape of a lance the height of Theo before shooting off into the distance, leaving a steaming trail behind.

“That looks deadly.”

“Yeah, we’ve been working on a poison aspect, but it isn’t working. Alex thinks she’s locked into nature and fire.”

“I’ve tried everything.”

“Except you won’t let me poison you.” Tresk put her hands on her hips.

“I didn’t learn my aspect for nature by eating vines. Why would your idea work?”

“I dunno! Weirder things have happened.”

“There’s only one point of reference I have for evolutions,” Theo said, nodding at the bickering pair. “And the only thing that forced the change was exposure to an realm’s energy.”

“So, what? We just toss Alex in Tero’gal for a week and call it?” Tresk asked, huffing.

“Yeah, not likely to work. Everyone in town gets enough exposure to both Tero’gal and Drogramath energy daily. What happened to the project with the karatan absorbing energy?”

Tresk shrugged. “Nothing. They’re just normal karatan.” Tresk slapped Alex on the side again. The goose snapped at her, forcing her to stumble backwards. “You’re bitey today.”

“I could eat you whole, worm.”

“That’s the spirit!” Tresk cheered. “We’ll turn you into a bloodthirsty goose. One of these days.”

When the Dreamwalk finally ended, Theo felt a strange twinge as he returned to the waking world. He remained in bed for some time, searching around his golem network to find them in various states. Some had been destroyed underground, while others were still helping the situation in Qavell. His Plat Golems tended farms and greenhouses, but nothing else seemed strange enough for concern. With a shrug, he joined everyone at breakfast downstairs. While it was a pleasant meal, he couldn’t get his mind off of the sensation.

Throk had completed Salire’s order from yesterday, which was encouraging in more ways than one. He was back in town, taking orders rather than working on the rail. According to the administrative reports, there had been a malfunction with his counterfeit coin device that required attention. After breakfast was done, Theo headed to the lab to give his apprentice some instructions. She agreed to bring the new equipment back to the lab while he checked on some things at the Adventurer’s Guild.

Theo stood outside of the building for some time, gazing at the foundation. This spot had been a patch of bare earth some time ago. From here, he could see the wall leading to the west and out into the swamp. That wall itself wasn’t there either. Broken Tusk had been a defenseless patch of mud that wasn’t worth defending. HIs impression of the place when he got here was sky-high, and had only climbed beyond what was reasonable. Going from a dead world to anything with life made him latch onto everything and everyone. With a steady breath, he entered the guild to search for Jan.

Resting in an uncomfortable-looking chair near a fireplace was Jan, chatting and smiling with other adventurers. It hadn’t taken him long to adjust to this life, which might have been concerning. Theo approached.

“So, I grab this scrawny elf by the neck,” Jan said, wiping tears from his eyes. He had been laughing. He placed a hand on his chest, wincing from some phantom pain. “And he explodes out. Broke two ribs. I couldn’t taste anything for a week.”

Theo cleared his throat. The other adventurers stood at attention, but Jan only looked back with a lazy drag of his gaze. The newest servant of Glantheir nodded to him. “A word?” the alchemist asked.

“I’ve got a few,” Jan said, pushing himself to his feet.

Theo made his way to the hall’s front, pushing through the door. He didn’t bother looking to see if Jan followed behind, instead tracking him with his senses. There was something of Glantheir’s power blooming in the man’s chest. He must have taken the core. Good.

“Elves on Earth,” Theo said, shaking his head. “I know you didn’t fight an elf here. You would’ve been dead.”

“That’s right,” Jan nodded.

Some intuition took over. Theo’s increasing Wisdom had him seeing possibilities in conversation as well as in physical space. “Who was the elf?”

“A guy from the other place.”

“What was his name?” Theo pressed on, finding it comforting to walk his town.

“Eric or something,” Jan said, waving a dismissive hand. “I’m not good with names.”

“Elrin,” Theo corrected. He felt Jan’s soul quiver slightly.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

Because Gold said that name, Theo thought, gritting his teeth.

“Was Twist from that other place?” Theo asked, not answering the last question.

“As far as I know. They didn’t tell me much. Do you know what happened? It sounds like you know what happened.”

“I have a theory. It sounds like there was a realm overlayed over Earth. But if it was there in my time, I didn’t know about it.”

“They said only certain people could go there. You might be right but I really don’t know.”

Theo paused near the monolith in Broken Tusk. He looked back on his memories, seeing the monolith in Qavell with perfect clarity. He had to do something about that monolith soon, but no ideas had come to mind. But he had a basic plan that involved letting the venom do its work for a while.

“I pulled you aside to have a talk, but I’m getting more interested in what happened on Earth. I’m wondering if you saw anyone that looked like a half-bird half-person when you were on Earth.”

Jan shrugged. “Just the big eye in the sky.”

Theo turned, shaking his head. “What about the government? You were in the Old United States of America. Did they know there was a realm overlayed on theirs?”

Jan laughed. A deep belly laugh that brought a smile to Theo’s face, even if he was trying to be serious. “Old United States of America. Damn, you really are from the future.”

“There was nothing left in my time. Everyone migrated north or south, but the country was dissolved. We splintered into smaller countries.”

“Oh. Bummer. Yeah, we had some fights with the government over people coming to and from the other place. There were a bunch of people on the other side that were trapped. G-men came for this girl, and I was part of the group that busted her out. That Eric guy was from the other world, but he broke through into ours. Rescued her and some other people. But the eye showed up not too long after.”

So, the plot thickened. Theo wouldn’t correct Jan again for saying ‘Eric’ instead of ‘Elrin’. “Interesting.”

“Yup. Eric had a bunch of magic powers like the others. Didn’t think they could use them outside of the other place, but what do I know?” Jan shrugged. “I was a grunt with an arsenal.”

Theo couldn’t stop himself from laughing. He knew a few guys like that in his time. “That’s relatable.”

Jan raised a brow. “Did you serve? Not me, by the way. Private all the way.”

That wasn’t so easy to define. “Kinda. I’m not sure you could understand the structure of the government back then. We got trained for spycraft from an early age. It was mostly about blending in and reporting.”

“And murder, right?” Jan asked.

Theo shrugged. “Not really.”

“But, hey… This place is nice. And I’m alive, so thanks for that.”

Theo nodded. “Yeah. Guess you’re right.”

“Hey, is that everything? I’m scheduled to do some patrols. Looking to let off some steam on some goblins.”

“Yeah, you’re good.” Theo watched as Jan turned, his trenchcoat trailing as he went. At least he was adjusting to the new world.

Theo wandered back to the lab, finding himself taking more turns than he intended. He rolled the information over in his mind, allowing his intuition to make connections. Loose ends earned knots, binding them to other loose ends.  The door to the Newt and Demon jingled as he entered, a smile on his face. Salire had already brought the new device to the lab, along with some new equipment.

“What’s that?” Theo asked, jabbing his finger at a Drogramathi Iron tank resting on its side. The tank was longer than he was tall.

“New design for the pressure vessel. Throk guarantees it won’t explode!” Salire seemed a bit too excited about that claim. He doubted it was completely accurate.

“I like not exploding.” Theo inspected the device, finding it to be similar to the first generation of pressure vessels Throk had made. The big change here were bands of Drogramathi Iron reinforcing the sides, and the built-in heating system. An artifice could accept liquid, turn it to vapor, and hold that vapor at pressure so it wouldn’t lose its form. The only limit on the vessel’s operation was the amount of power that was introduced. Throk had apparently recommended using real coins, or those created by his money printer. “Let’s hook this crap up.”

The lab had become a mess. The mixer device was exactly as Theo imagined it, but had been shoved into the room’s corner. If they wanted to maintain both the industrial capacity of the lab while also producing these labor-intensive potions, they would need to take some space on the second floor. For now, Theo sucked five of the ten Drogramathi Iron stills into his inventory and arranged the new devices in the area they once occupied.

“Looks like we’ll finally get use out of the second floor,” Theo said, shoving his weight against the pressure vessel until it was in place. He filled it with third tier Refined Bound Healing Essence, switching the artifice on before affixing the output tube from there to the first input of the mixer. “But we still can’t store liquid mana.”

“Throk said he was working on that, but didn’t think it was possible,” Salire said. She grunted, attaching the tube from a second pressure vessel to the mixer. That would be the line that fed the dilution into the mix. “So, this is an incomplete test.”

“The next phase in our proof of concept.” Theo slapped the pressure vessel, almost burning his hand. “That’s already really hot. Crank the AC.”

Theo thought of ways to store his liquid mana as they waited for everything to heat. He drew mana into his palm, watching as it evaporated in his hand. Capturing it in gas form might have worked, but mana had a habit of soaking into the air in a strange way. Like the energy that flowed around Broken Tusk, it soaked into something other than the air itself. Perhaps it was another state of matter, but he didn’t know enough about it to solve the problem on his own. For now, he would feed mana to the machine directly. It was good enough for now.

“This looks pretty good,” Theo said, inspecting the imperfect seams in the connections. “We have a small leak here.”

Salire scratched her head, squinting at the seam between the first pressure vessel and the mixer. “Really?”

“Yeah, we need someone to weld this stuff together.” Theo slapped the mixer. It hissed slightly. “Just turn on the extractor for now. Shouldn’t be horribly explosive.”

Salire gained a nervous look on her face, but did as told. Once the extractor fan was on, they watched as the mixer did its job. It took mana from Theo, essence from the first pressure tank, and dilution from the second pressure tank. The mix was then passed through a standard condenser, where it was collected in a flask. While this method was much faster than the small scale version, it still produced pitiful amounts of essence.

“There it is,” Theo said, grabbing the flask and replacing it with a new one. He swirled the single unit of essence in the flask. “Good quality, but better than before. And the best part?”

“It isn’t exploding…”

“Exactly. But there’s something more important to consider here.” Theo held the flask up, allowing the sun to shine through the hazy pink liquid. “We’re the first people to create it. An outworlder dronon and a half-ogre just pushed Drogramath’s alchemy to the next level.”

Salire gazed at the flask with amazement. “Do you think you’ll get something special for doing this? Like the other Potions of Significance?”

Theo offered Salire a smile. “I know I will.”

Chapter 30

Unique Potion

Theo and Salire documented creating a fourth tier potion. Even just looking at the raw essence felt like viewing something momentous. The reaction was clean. Almost too stable for the alchemist’s liking, considering how powerful the resulting potion would be when compared to the last tier. The liquid inside the flask bubbled, leaving small amounts of froth near the top of the vial, but nothing more. What was left was a shining red liquid, glimmering with potential.

“There it is,” Theo said, smiling to himself as the prompt appeared.

[Unique Potion]

You are the first person to craft this potion. This potion has never been created by another mortal. Please select an attribute to boost from the following list:

Strength, Vigor, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, Willpower.

“You got it? Same deal as last time?” Salire asked.

No, it wasn’t the same prompt as last time. The last prompt claimed it was about a ‘potion of significance’ while this one was about a ‘unique potion’. The difference was subtle. Gaining attributes from the potions that were on a world-based timer made enough sense, since their creation came from impossibly difficult-to-find reagents. But this new prompt came from making a potion someone else hadn’t made. The surprising part was that others had made potions like the Potion of Limited Foresight and so on.

“I got it,” Theo said. “I should go full Wisdom, shouldn’t I?”

“Maybe. I guess that depends.” Salire placed her hands on her hips, humming for a moment. “Wait, we’re going to make at least one potion for all the other potions we’ve done, aren’t we?”

“Yep. That’s a lot of free attributes. How many unique potions have we made? Aside from this one?”

“Twenty… something. I don’t know,” Salire said, going through her notes. “Wait, twenty times ten is two-hundred.”

“Two-hundred attributes to distribute how I see fit.” Theo rubbed his hands together. He felt a warm sensation flooding through his brain as he selected Wisdom on the prompt. “That’s insane.”

Salire swallowed hard, shaking her head. “I’m kinda scared.”

Theo watched as his precognition got slightly better. Ten points put him in another realm of Wisdom, giving him about two seconds of predictive power. On top of that, his Wisdom of the Soul prompts would give him better information. More mana didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t needed. While this would take a while for him to get used to, it was worth it.

“Oh,” Theo said, looking at the potion in his hand. “I guess I should inspect this.”

Salire chuckled.

[Major Healing Potion]

[Potion]

Epic

Created by: Theo Spencer

Grade: Good Quality

Alignment:

Tero’gal (Perfect Bond)

A healing potion. Drink to restore health.

Effect:

Instantly restores 250 health points.

“That’s a fine potion,” Theo said, holding it up to the light. The clarity was great, but so were most of his other potions now. The quality could have been higher, but it was good for now. “Not sure what I think about the process.”

“You might unlock an ability to make it easier.” Salire took the potion, wedging the stopper into the top. “How do you feel?”

“I’m good.” Theo watched as Salire moved across the room before she actually moved. He wondered why people didn’t take more Wisdom, but it was a tricky attribute. The points required to get to where he was likely only benefited artisans. Dexterity and Intelligence might have been more useful for them anyway. “I can see you move before you move.”

“Are you seeing fates, yet?” Salire asked.

“Nope. That must be reserved for ultra-high levels. Thank god for that, though.”

“You’re becoming your own god… look at the alignment on that potion.”

“You know what’s funny? The gods aren’t actually gods. Which means I was right when I got here. They’re just really strong people that convinced the system to give them a new name.” Theo paused for a long moment. Salire clearly had no interest in engaging in religious debates. He cast his eyes to the ceiling, as though he could peer through it and into the heavens. “Now that I said that out loud, I’m worried. What if…”

“Uh-oh. Here he goes…”

“I’ll be back. Could you get the materials for all possible fourth tier potions?”

“I’m on it, boss!” Salire offered a curtsey, dashing off. 

The moment Theo fell through the veil, he felt that something was off. The void was turbulent, no longer a static thing. It was as though a great wind blew against him, holding him back as he crossed over the Bridge. Things were too weird. He wouldn’t risk crossing the Bridge the right way and he wrapped himself in his willpower-fueled cloak of shadows. Pushing against the force was rough, but Theo landed in his own realm soon enough.

“Problem!” Belgar shouted, rushing through the sparse village to find Theo. He was out of breath, doubled over as he heaved. “There’s a war.”

Theo’s brow knit, his senses spreading over his planet. They weren’t being attacked. “A war?”

“Yeah. I’m sure… yeah, there he is.” Belgar pointed as Khahar appeared with a serious look on his face.

“Theo. Come.” Khahar jerked his head to the side. Theo followed, retreating to the cozy cottage.

As the pair drew closer, Theo could hear many voices within. Khahar threw the door open, revealing quite a few gods crowded within the tight space. He stood there for too long, taking in the minor and mid-tier gods he had never seen before. Among all those gathered, he was surprised to see a few faces and unsurprised that others were missing. Balkor had finally accepted his invitation.

“How screwed are they?” Theo asked.

“Almost completely,” Khahar said, shutting the door and pulling Theo aside. They found a place to talk where the others couldn’t hear. “I’m guessing you caught on already.”

“This is why you don’t tell me anything, huh? Because you know I’ll figure it out.” Theo sighed. There might have been a world where it didn’t have to go down like this, but the early ascendants had to sleep in the bed they made. “Who is the big man making war?”

“Void made the first move, which I didn’t expect. The others haven’t left the void.”

“How many are there? Twelve?”

“Only four right now. I don’t know where the others are.”

Theo scratched his chin. He recalled his meeting with the system and the twelve spots there. Twelve spots for twelve gods. Not the pretenders that claimed to be gods. These guys were the real deal. “Are they destroying realms?”

“Nope. Might be worse for those holding realms. They’re being stripped of power.”

The most interesting part of that was Khahar’s position among the gods. Theo didn’t know if his old friend had ascended as a god, or just as the owner of Khahak and the Throne of the Arbiter. If he had to guess, he would say Khahar knew this might happen, and planned accordingly. What this meant for the other ascendants was hard to say. The heated conversation within the cottage revealed how desperate their situation was. The alchemist was snapped out of his contemplations when an alert sprung up.

[Attack Attempt Failed]

An unknown entity has tried and failed to attack the realm of Tero’gal. The reason for this failure is unknown.

Theo narrowed his eyes, feeling around his realm as though it were his own body. He felt the two thrones hidden here pulsing, pushing back against whatever it was that had attacked. But the attacker wasn’t hard to determine. It was one of four interlopers. A moment later, he heard a voice fill his mind.

“Oh, you stink.” It was Void. No surprise there. “Let me in so we can have a chat.”

Khahar nodded at Theo. The alchemist scoffed. “Part of your predictions?”

“One of a few. Let him in. The old rules should still apply.”

Theo sighed. He had absolute authority here. If that authority failed, he had the thrones. Had he faced any other entity coming into his realm, he would have rejected them. But it was easy to assume Void was the person he needed to get to the far side of the void. Well, the entity’s name and the place were going to get confusing.

“Come on in,” Theo said, giving his mental confirmation to the god.

A purple-black portal appeared, and the short man stepped out. The features of his face were now hidden, obscured behind a swirling vortex of black. He crossed his arms, tutting at the alchemist. “Took you long enough. Lots of trash to clean up! I’ll just head in there and slaughter them, if you don’t mind.”

“Not gonna happen,” Theo said, staring the god down.

“Oh, yeah?” Void asked with a giggle. “You guys went too long skirting the rules. And… You sneaky little butthole. Thrones? THRONES? He isn’t even the real arbiter!”

“The Throne of the Arbiter isn’t here. It was fused with a High Elderling Realm before your arrival.” Instead of spitting in the god’s face, Khahar bowed his head. “The ascendants of this world have no hope to resist you, Void. But the planet is broken.”

“Now he’s gonna ask for my help.” Void groaned. “I’m doing all the heavy lifting, and he has the balls to ask me for help. Look how confused the demon is. He needs to work on his poker face.”

Khahar cleared his throat. “If you give him instruction on that, he might actually beat me at the game.”

“Hah! I like that. There’s a hold on realms with thrones in them, so consider yourself lucky. No other realm is safe. I’m happy purging them all.” Void crossed his arms. He might have been glaring at Theo and Khahar from behind that swirling mask, but neither could tell. “Come on. What’s the pitch?”

“I’m sure you recall the shards.” Khahar bowed his head.

“Of course.”

“They aren’t here.”

“Yeah, they are.” Void tilted his head to the side.

“Did you check?”

“No, but they should be here. Everything would be in… disorder if… they weren’t… Okay I get it.” Void scoffed, waving a dismissive hand.

“You’ll need someone to go get them. Someone like Theo.”

“Why?”

“You cannot cross into the mortal realms. Not even a splinter realm.” Khahar’s face took on a look of confusion.

“I can go anywhere I want. We’re not bound by the stupid rules you guys made way-back-when. We’re already working on dismantling them so we can fix this stupid world.”

But if Void could just go pluck the shards from the far end of the void, why hadn’t he? Theo couldn’t figure this god out. There was something off about him. Perhaps he hadn’t gained his full power yet, or he was diminished in Tero’gal. Whatever the case, he wasn’t able to impart his full will on the world.

“You need us,” Theo said, self-assured. “Otherwise you would have gone. Right? So, why can’t you?”

Theo felt Void narrow his gaze, but saw nothing. “You remind me of someone… Very annoying.” After a hauntingly long pause, Void clapped his hands together once. “Okay, jerks. Here’s the deal. Since you’re the only two idiots not peeing your pants, you’re gonna fix this.”

Theo and Khahar shared a look. Only Khahar smiled as he said, “That was the plan.”

“Horns, get the shards back to the planet. Tall-and-fuzzy, muzzle these not-gods. You guys can designate a realm for each god to migrate to. Hey, don’t worry. You can keep yours if you have a throne. Everyone else needs to fight for a spot in the pantheon.”

“The twelve spots, right?” Theo asked.

“Yeah. Four are… Oh, you crafty little bastard!” Void turned, growing at nothing. “Do the job. Bye.”

Void vanished without another word.

Theo turned to Khahar, shaking his head. “How much of that did you predict?”

“What I saw was fuzzy. But I saw what drew him away.” A smile crept across Khahar’s face. “He didn’t expect our fake gods to fight back. Glantheir does battle.”

Things were officially moving too fast for Theo. He had big plans back in the mortal realm, and not enough time to accomplish what he planned. It seemed as though everyone with even a hint of power had plans of their own. But for once he was happy to see the once-gods rendered powerless. Compared to a true god, they were nothing. That answered a question Theo had since he arrived here. The ‘gods’ seemed so without power that they were useless. Well, there was the answer.

“Let’s organize these lesser ascendants,” Theo said, clapping a hand on Khahar’s shoulder.

Khahar nodded his agreement and they headed over to the cottage. The moment the door opened, the room went silent. Theo looked over those gathered for the meeting. Ascendants from every race were there, all in various states of anger or disbelief. The looks they shot to the entrance were as varied as their race. The alchemist was sad to see Benton among them.

“Here’s the deal.” Khahar’s voice carried over the crowd, silencing whatever murmurs remained. “We won’t tell you what to do. But if you return to your realms, you might die.”

“As in… die?” one ascendant asked. “Forever?”

Balkor’s eyes flashed from the crowd, the flare of green darkening the room. The dronon ascendant was one of few higher gods. Theo couldn’t get a read on him, but he could have been desperate.

“That’s right. Tero’gal and Kahak are happy to take you and whatever souls you want to bring over. Otherwise, I’m certain the other realms will collapse.” Khahar’s voice had a tone of finality that gave Theo chills.

“Even the high realms?” Balkor asked.

Theo locked eyes with the necromantic dronon ascendant. He looked like all other dronon he had seen, but with pale green skin and faded green eyes. One eye had lost its color, becoming a muted gray. He wore tattered robes. His fight was long, and the alchemist couldn’t forget how much of a catalyst he was. Evil or not, he helped get the world to this point.

“That’s right. Unless you can secure a spot in the new pantheon, you’re screwed.”

More questions came from the crowd. Everyone was upset about losing their realms, not understanding how an upstart like Theo got to keep his. Khahar didn’t give direct answers, instead skirting the issue and telling them to take it up with the new management. They only had so much time, and Khahar wasn’t willing to wait.

“That’s it,” Khahar said, holding his hands up to silence whatever questions came next. “Settle matters in your realms. Or die. That’s up to you.”