The Newt and Demon

Salire’s dedication to alchemy was admirable. Theo couldn’t get his mind to work fast enough to process what had just happened. Meeting the system itself was weird, giving him a sensation he couldn’t place lingered in the back of his mind. Whoever Void was, he had escaped into the wider world. He shook those thoughts loose for now, more eager to figure out how his new alchemy step worked. They brought their gear behind the Newt and Demon, ready to test.

“This makes sense to me.” Salire attached a mixing artifice onto a small-scale still. She attached the tubes, ready to fill the mixing chamber. “Dilutions plus mana plus essences.”

It was logical, as long as a person kept magic in mind. Taking a third tier essence and infusing it with a complimentary dilution with mana would infuse the resulting essence. Instead of striving to remove the impurities, it would double-down on the good stuff. They weren’t removing those bad parts, but making them less within the mixture. That’s what Theo thought, anyway.

“Let’s go,” Theo said, pressing his hand against the mana infusion chamber. “Are the stills up to heat?”

“Of course. Those little guys heat in a few seconds.”

There was nothing left to do but try. Theo kept his theory to himself until the mana fused perfectly with the dilution, then mixed with the third tier essence in the mixing chamber. Both Salire and Theo hid behind a tree as the mixture combined. Because it should have exploded. But it didn’t. The alchemist removed himself from cover and approached, hooking the condenser up to the artifice and placing a flask under it. Essence dripped out, collecting in the glass flask.

“Did we do something different?” Salire asked, still hiding behind the tree.

“The equipment might have helped, but that wasn’t the only thing.” Theo knelt down, looking at the faintly pink liquid as it dripped into the flask. “This is the software update.”

“The what?”

“I’m almost certain the system didn’t know what to do for the fourth tier. Pretty sure we just invented it.”

Salire approached the flask with caution, her head turned to one side in case the mixture exploded. “How the hell does that work?”

“Drogramath wasn’t performing his own form of alchemy when he was down here. Before he became an ascendant, he was doing the normal kind of alchemy. If I had to guess, he ascended close to Level 100 and built his power from there. Only after he ascended did he make his alchemy cores, and his people never got to fourth tier alchemy.”

“Seems like an incomplete theory,” Salire said, a doubtful look washing over her face.

“Agreed.”

Theo didn’t have all the answers. But he had some fourth tier essence in a flask. One thing he noticed from the experiment was the quantity of essence he got from the reaction. It was less than the standard reaction would produce, but he could feel the magical potency of the liquid even without touching it. He examined the mixture.

[Refined Bound Stabilized Healing Essence]

[Essence] [Refined Essence] [Bound Essence] [Stabilized Essence]

Uncommon

Created by: Theo Spencer

Grade: Poor Quality

Purity: 95%

0.25 units (liquid)

Concentrated, refined, bound, stabilized essence of healing. Used to create healing potions.

The quality sucked, but there was time for improvements later. For now, he was happy to have any amount of the new essence. This was a proof of concept, after all. What they needed now was to industrialize the process as much as they could. While the lab didn’t produce truly industrial quantities of their potions, their output exceeded that of most labs in the world. That was Theo’s thought, anyway. He had yet to explore anything other than what he had created.

Theo tilted his head to the side, feeling something emanating in the distance. “What was that?”

Salire shrugged. “Did you hear something?”

“Felt something. Someone parting the veil. Maybe Fenian?”

Another shrug from the apprentice alchemist. “He said he was leaving to see the elves.”

Theo hummed, looking back at their small-scale experiment. “Time to bother Throk some more.”

The veil parted the way it always had for Fenian. His enchanted karatan surged forward, clopping over the stones in Broken Tusk that gave way to the smooth ride of the Bridge. He let out a sigh of relief, feeling the energies of Uz’Xulven wash over him like a comforting wave. The Bridge had changed little since the last time he visited it. Those thoroughfares leading from one realm to the other forked off in every direction, revealed to a champion of the Queen of the Bridge of Shadows. He cleared his throat as a familiar weight settled in next to him.

“You’ve been a busy boy,” Uz’Xulven said, shoving him playfully. “Get a leash on that alchemist.”

“My dear, if you can leash him, you’re welcome to do so.”

“Oh, you’re snippy. Something not going your way? Wet your underpants again?”

Fenian turned, glaring at the woman. The anger only flashed on his face for a moment. Like all the other gods, she would get hers. It was only a matter of time. He replaced the anger with joy, his face shifting in a moment back to unbridled joy.

“I have plenty of underpants. Some have lace. Would you like to see?” Fenian asked.

“The day I let you into my chambers is the day the heavens fall.” Uz’Xulven grumbled. “What business do you have in the ruins?”

“I suspect there are forces moving that we didn’t account for.” Fenian thought about the new players. Especially Twist. “What do you know of that small man that appeared in town?”

“Almost nothing.” Although Uz’Xulven’s face was shrouded in shadow, Fenian could feel some of her failure bleeding through. She had no information on Void, or Twist. “That masked elf you mentioned—Twist—isn’t registered with the system as an outworlder. I’m still waiting on information about the new one you told me about.”

“Void,” Fenian said, scratching his chin. “Things were going so well before all these people came out of nowhere. First Theo, then the others. Tresk is a problem, too. The old holder of the throne would have bent to our will easier. Not Tresk, though.”

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“You only needed to hold Broken Tusk where it was. That part of the plan worked well enough. We can handle everything else.”

Fenian wasn’t so sure. The other throne-holders might have adjacent goals, but they weren’t completely aligned. They wanted to restart the world, but where did that put his schemes? One god mostly dead wasn’t the same as every god completely dead. Scouring the heavens would only become more difficult as time rolled on, and the ploy to get Balkor to betray his station was hard enough to pull off. He sighed, snapping the reins to urge his karatan down a path on the Bridge.

“The air feels different here,” Fenian said. “Anything you want to tell me?”

Uz’Xulven shrugged. She wouldn’t admit it.

“This is my stop,” Fenian said, nodding to the Bridge’s end up ahead. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck,” Uz’Xulven said, fading as Fenian crossed the threshold.

The karatan skidded to a stop, their hooves digging into ruined ground in a wide open field. The landscape in all directions was ruined, necromantic energy still laced in the ground. But Balkor’s remnant had pulled most of his power back, coiling for an attack on Tarantham. So long as Kuzan held up his end of the bargain, that should spell the end of the god’s reign on the mortal world.

“Oh, I hate loopholes.” Fenian sighed, dismounting his carriage. “Stay here, Galflower. Daddy has a massive crater to descend into.”

Fenian peered over the edge of the crater. Some remnants of Qavell’s wall remained here, shattered in places from the undead’s attack. Much of the city’s underground area had been scooped up with it, leaving only dead-end tunnels and rubble. The elf fell over the edge, his feet glued to the slope as he descended. Some dark power remained from the Dark Coresmiths. He stopped near the bottom, looking over the water that had pooled where a city once stood. A foul lake tainted with Balkor’s magic.

The sound of feathers fluttering through the air came from his left as something settled in on the rock beside him.

“Are you allowed to be here?” Fenian asked, turning to look at the bird-like features of the Watcher.

“As I planted the seed, so may I water it.”

Fenian hated the way the creature talked. Every word ended in a snap of a beak or the ruffling of feathers. He had never enjoyed the company of the creature’s race, and would never come to enjoy it. They were offensive to mortal existence. Another light to be snuffed, perhaps. But not today.

“Are our newest guests welcome? My core didn’t allow me to destroy Void. Is that another oversight on your part?”

The creature snapped its beak. “I have no oversights. Only mortal intervention spoils my plans. You spoil my plans. Theo Spencer threatens them. He activated the queue prematurely, which has unspooled threads even I cannot know.”

“That was the other guy, wasn’t it? The one who set this in motion. Sorry, I can hardly keep track of your kind.”

“Perhaps this is better, though.” The Watcher hardly seemed to hear Fenian’s words. As always, the entity was in its own head. Always scheming. “I’m surprised you haven’t realized what they are.”

“Just so we’re clear, we’re talking about beings like Void, right?” Fenian asked.

“That’s right. How can I put this in a way your small mind can understand? The instructions for the systems have hidden parts. I could pull those instructions apart, but it would destroy this universe. Instead, we must take them as they come. Do you understand?”

Fenian couldn’t keep his fake smile up anymore. He nodded.

“Those instructions allowed the mortals to ascend and play at divinity. While they changed the titles of positions, they didn’t gain the power of a true god.”

Swallowing hard, Fenian read between the creature’s words. “That’s frightening.”

“Mortal, Throne, Ascendant, God, Creator.” The Watcher nodded to himself, closing his beady eyes and sucking in a lungful of air. “I wonder if you’ve put things together yet. Not likely.”

“Twelve gods, two systems, five thrones.” The Watcher allowed the words to hang in the air, sensing when Fenian picked up on the error. Something of a smile graced the creature’s eyes, but not his beaked face. “Heaven, Realm, Mortality, Dimensionality, and… What’s the best word? Null.”

Perhaps that revelation was a distraction. There could have been one-thousand thrones and Fenian wouldn’t care. His mind focused on the implications of the Watcher’s previous statement. The gods weren’t gods. They were ascendant beings that had seized power and created a realm. After the Second War of Ascendancy, they convinced the system to change their title. From Ascendant to God. Twelve gods. Not ten-thousand. The elf turned his eyes skyward, looking at the green clouds that pooled to block the stars.

He could feel it, though it was faint. Like a tug at his navel after a steep drop. As though his connection with the Bridge was in freefall.

“Welcome to a new era.” The Watcher produced something like a laugh. “Welcome to the War in Heaven.”

Fenian felt the being leave, but didn’t respond. He closed his eyes, focusing on his connection with Uz’Xulven. As her champion, he felt the breach. The unsanctioned declaration of war that rippled throughout the heavens. Theo had really screwed this one up. But his hammer heart calmed after a few breaths. This wasn’t what he had in mind, but it achieved the same end. Didn’t it?

“What better to kill ascendants than gods?” Fenian asked himself, chuckling as he scooped something from the water. He sucked it into his inventory, ascending the bowl of the crater. “Come, Galflower. We have something else to grab before we go. Something an emperor will want desperately.”

Emperor Kuzan drummed his fingers on the arm of his throne. His peerless eyes scanned not only the area of his immediate court, but places for miles around. Balkor’s mindless undead were attacking his eastern shores, and he couldn’t have been more bored. He took a steady breath, nodding to his steward.

“Off to Droth Ker Taral Set, my lord?” he asked.

“Something changed,” Kuzan said, standing and rolling his shoulders. His joints cracked with satisfying pops as he reached out to his private realm. “I’ll only be gone a moment.”

The emperor of Tarantham passed through the veil, slipping unseen to his hidden High Elderling Realm. His boots crunched leaves underfoot as he made his way to the forest’s edge. Screens appeared hovering in the air, displaying scenes from the mortal plane and the heavens alike. Four of the five interlopers had made their moves, but something was wrong with the fifth. One screen focused on Fenian’s carriage, which was inbound to Tarantham.

“What do you have there?” Kuzan asked, squinting as though he could see into the elf’s inventory. It would have worked if he was here, but with the remote-viewing ability it did nothing.

“Aren’t you going to join them?”

The twinkling voice that came from behind him felt like daggers dragged over his flesh. He didn’t turn to greet the crystalline entity. The emperor didn’t care for her musings last time, and he wouldn’t suffer them this time.

“I’m staying out of it.”

“You’ll die.”

Kuzan grit his teeth, still refusing to turn. He moved his screens around, checking on his agents and investments. He doubted she was right. There was enough time to plan this time, and his mind wasn’t addled by the old version of this system. Although she was likely right, he didn’t care. The cost to form this realm was too great, and he wouldn’t let anyone have it.

“Have you come to mock me?” Kuzan asked.

“Just a warning is all. Once the shards are in place, you won’t have a choice. You’ll need to ascend.”

Kuzan flipped through more screens, scanning the endless ascendant realms. “Has Eral Dum formed yet?”

“None have. The lower realms must be destroyed first.”

Kuzan always knew it would happen fast, but this was bad. He looked over his realm, allowing himself to smile at what he had worked so hard for. Once Fire, Shadow, Twin, Shifting, and Earth formed it would only be a matter of time. Perhaps he could convince a few of them to take mortal forms again, but that would be hard. But once the anchors were in place, that was possible. He only hoped there was something of an elf left in his ancestors. For their sakes, and the sake of his future children.

“This is what it comes to.” Kuzan let out a sigh. “We go through the same thing as last time. Is he in the queue?”

“Yes, but he was given extra protections. He will not come until conditions are met. The shards must be placed first. Only when they are inactive again will he arrive.”

“Fine. No matter what form I take, I only need to be there when he returns.”

“Is revenge worth it?”

“It’s the only thing I’ve ever known. Leave me to my work, System. We’ll see how many plans these people have in place.”

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