“I will never speak!” The limbless elemental lord shouted.

“We don’t need answers now,” Commander Blacklake said while polishing a needle, “Simply before we arrive.”

Blacklake had been surprised to find that elementals felt pain. At least the ones Siren called anima elementals had a nervous system. He dipped his needle in a necrotoxin, one of his nastier fluids. He then pricked the elemental and watched as the flesh discolored before it was sterilized by the elemental lord's healing abilities.

It was not that the healing factor nullified the poison, it simply healed faster than the poison could rot. The efficacy was quickly exhausted as it tried to eat through the same piece of flesh over and over again.

The army was currently heading towards the next greatest concentration of elementals outside the mines. Both Siren and the man child believed that there was something in the lake. Something that they could use to lure out the lead elemental lord. Blacklake was not sure if he believed them, but he had to admit they had united the caldera’s warriors in a way he thought impossible.

It did not hurt that many of the elite warriors had credited Siren with their rise to prominence. How Blacklake never heard of this mysterious figure who controlled the military from behind the scenes, he was unsure. The simple answer ‘he sat at a mine and trained his men to fight a tier up’ made little sense.

He cleaned the needle again and asked again, “Tell me what are you elemental lords searching in the Lake Caldera?”

“Release me, stupid human!” Was all the elemental said in response.

Shrugging Commander Blacklake dipped the needle into a blood thinner. It was not too useful for killing people and was more often used for pest control. It had an odd effect on tier three and up warriors. The blood was thinner, and wounds would bleed more freely, but essence constructs would also be constructed faster. While this increased speed did not guarantee a worse construct, all warriors were very used to a certain ease of use, so a blood thinner often resulted in weak constructs. He was curious about what would happen to the elemental.

Pricking it in the armpit, he watched as the healing sped up in that arm. However, it was only the kern. The anima was unaffected. Before the arm was regrown, Blacklake grabbed a large cleaver and chopped the limb off. Then he tried again, the limb grew back, and he chopped it off again.

“What are you doing,” Blacklake could not be sure, but he thought he could detect uncertainty in the elemental.

Three rounds of poison and chopping later he noticed why. The bone was becoming translucent, almost like those marbles the temple had. So blood thinner helped elementals heal faster, but it did not increase their actual recovery rate. They still had to supply the necessary essence, and unlike humans, they lacked the fleshy body that could sustain itself on food alone.

“Hmm, I need to get Siren,” Blacklake muttered. He was not sure how this would change anything, most elemental lords would not let an enemy repeatedly poison them.

He quickly chopped off the nubby limbs that were already regrowing before hopping out of the covered wagon. Quickly signaling a warrior to take his place he jogged to the front of the caravan. The Stone Caldera had supplies that they needed, not food as it was more plentiful in the plains than in the other Calderas, but crafters. Most warriors could repair their equipment, but they did not specialize in it. Oils for preserving armor, and medical supplies like bandages had been in desperate need.

Elder Stone had stayed with his people but had given them several wagons and coachmen to expedite their travel. Despite this, it would take a little less than a week to reach the Lake Caldera. Almost twice as long as it normally took.

Siren marched at the head of the column, he was comparing notes with a light kern scout. When he noticed Blacklake’s approach, he thanked the warrior and focused on the commander.

“Blacklake, how can I help you,” Siren said.

The commander took a few moments to adjust to the odd address. People were rarely polite in the military, “I think I might have found something of interest, but it is something easier to show than to explain.”

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Siren nodded and gestured for him to take the lead. They entered the wagon, which was now cramped with four people inside. Blacklake dismissed the guard, who left with a salute, before pulling out the bottle of blood thinner.

“This is a blood thinner, are you aware of the effects it has on a kern?” Blacklake asked.

Siren nodded, “Speeds up essence construct creation. We used to give it to warriors with fire kerns, it made them easier to kill, but they were able to pack more flame into a smaller area.”

Blacklake nodded, “Watch its effect on a disembodied kern.”

“I have a body, infernal human,” the elemental lord said.

Some of the color had returned to the earthy brown skeleton. Blacklake stabbed the elemental with a large dose of the poison, it was enough to kill any tier zero human. The effect was immediate, the kern started regrowing rapidly, though the anima elemental did not seem to be affected.

Siren watched the limbs, it was not the normal recovery process of reconstructing the body with ambient essence. Instead, it appeared to be spreading the essence already in the kern to the recovering area. Grabbing the knife, Siren chopped off both legs and the right arm.

“Let this one regrow,” Siren said, “I want to see if it is still a tier two elemental.”

Blacklake nodded and took a step back. He was interested to know as well, but he held no confidence in stopping the elemental lord by himself if it managed to recover. It took around ten minutes for the arm to fully recover, though it had a wispy and almost phantom appearance. This was almost an hour and a half faster than normal, and coloration was slowly returning as ambient essence was absorbed to strengthen the bone.

The elemental lord was an intelligent creature, it knew that it would lose the arm if it attacked. So instead it flopped over on its side, trying to cover it with its body. All that it succeeded in doing was looking pathetic, as Siren grabbed it by the neck. He hefted the whole body off the wooden planks and held it at eye level.

“You are just a corpse that has forgotten that it's already dead,” Siren muttered.

Blacklake chuckled at that, a little gratitude leaking through. The incapacitated lord had gone on and on tirelessly about how he was immortal and eternal. He had been unaware of how insulting being called mortal could be after two hours of berating.

“I am immortal ahhhh,” The elemental lord cried.

Siren had interlocked his fingers with the elemental lord’s and then squeezed. Both had the earth affinity, however, the elemental was supposed to be at tier five. The fact that Siren had a greater grip strength meant that the elemental’s strength was related to the essence it contained, not the soul that housed it.

“Make a note that the current tier of this kern is slightly above base tier one,” Siren said. Then he tore the entire limb off, “Can you apply another dose?”

Blacklake obliged, he assumed that Siren was checking the degradation between each dose. It was something that Blacklake had already started documenting, but his notes were far from concrete as he would not let an entire limb regenerate.

Ten minutes later, Siren crushed another limb, “Mid tier zero, if the rate is constant it loses three-quarters of a tier with every dose and subsequent regeneration.”

Blacklake nodded as he jotted that down, “Does this information help us?”

“Maybe,” Siren said, “If an acid can be applied to constantly drain an elemental, we can effectively remove their unlimited stamina.” he then pulled out a wooden capsule, “Do you know what gallium is?”

Blacklake shook his head, so Siren explained, “This is the material we intended to use on the Lord of the Underworld while he was trapped in the pit. It is a metal that erodes metal essence. As he is the only elemental with a metal part, it is only useful against him. My thought is, can you make something that similarly destroys other elementals? Maybe a fog that our warriors with air kerns can purify, but will wipe out any elemental it comes across?”

Commander Blacklake inspected the capsule with interest, “Would this gallium hurt humans?”

“It is not toxic to the touch, but it was designed to be released in a cloud. I can’t imagine it would be healthy within a warrior’s lungs,” Siren said.

“No, if a person with a metal kern got ahold of that, would it hurt them?” Blacklake asked.

“It would damage any constructs they make, but no, it would not even inhibit the natural reinforcement they possess. As I said it only works of essence, and even silver devils are still made of flesh,” Siren explained.

“Good, I think I know where to start then, though if you can catch and detain the other five types of elementals it would allow me to make sure any discoveries I make can be transferred between different essences,” Blacklake cracked his neck as he approached the elemental, “I also need you to send the man child in here.”

Siren was already halfway out of the wagon, “Do you need protection?”

“No, that chemical you have attacks the weakness of all elementals. Their lack of actual bodies. Also have you noticed that none of them show off quirks that would indicate a force? I think that is exploitable, and Luke is the only one here with a force that I can test with,” Blacklake explained.

Siren nodded, “I’ll send him and the priests, use the essence reservoirs on their staves if you have to feed essence to the elemental lord.”

The commander got back to his experimentation. Back when the Caldera was peaceful, he had been with the underground team of specialists who got all the dirty things done that the Elders could not publicly order. He was just glad to get back to his roots.