Pulling the amulet off his neck, Tristan inverted its polarity. Instead of taking and storing his healing alloy, it would inject the healing alloy into his target. He placed it into the wound and ran into his first issue. Healing filled a mold, Merrick was currently in a mold that kept him injured.
The architect alloy that had kept him alive had also stopped anyone from treating him. Tristan chuckled, Merick had to be the luckiest man alive. Well, aside from getting stabbed by a sloth. Any healer would have to possess the architect force to stop him from dying. While that was something a light kern could give, they would also have to be aware that kerns could be safely broken.
Tristan placed a palm on the man's chest and infused the body with his architect alloy in much the same way Luke had done with air essence. Only Tristan would not torture Merrick with a protein shake afterward. He made sure to overlap his essence with the artifacts and then he removed the tier five artifact.
There was an instant drain on his essence, as the task of holding Merrick together ate through his kern’s reserves. He placed the amulet against the wound and slowly weaned his architect alloy off its essence flow. It highlighted the fact that Tristan was underutilizing his Alloys, there was a lot he could do, and it did not all have to be war themed. He would perform better outside of a military setting. His mind started to wander with the possibilities as he waited for the combined alloy and healing amulet to do their work.
The amulet was covered in blood as Tristan slowly removed it from the injuries. He didn’t want a simple surface level healing, now that the torso was finished, Tristan set the amulet on Merick’s forehead. He wanted to preserve whatever was left of Merick’s mind, not that he was sure the brain worked like that. Maybe healing it would do nothing for lost memories.
“What kern type did he have?” Tristan asked not looking up.
“He has no kern, it's broken,” Elder River answered.
“Answer or I’ll put your head in a bucket too!”
“It was a water kern, all the River Caldera’s head family has a water kern,” Elder River answered quickly.
Tristan fished around in his bag before removing a water essence reservoir he had taken from an acolyte. It was a good thing that Ripple was a water god, otherwise the acolytes might not have had the appropriate reservoirs.
“You know the head family of the Forrest Caldera all had fire kerns until I showed up,” Tristan said, as he made Merick consume the water reservoir.
Now all they had to do was wait. If he lived, the reservoir would boost his gains from the broken kern and expedite his recovery. While he waited Tristan turned back to his original objective.
“So, can I get something to restrict a tier four’s essence generation?” Tristan asked.
Elder Lake sighed, and pointed at the amulet, “That would do it, though it will only work until the gem fills up.”
“Are you advising me to leave a potentially violent tier four here, only held back by an easily removable necklace?” Tristan asked incredulously.
He had obviously thought of that. The amulet would be great for restraining prisoners during transport but would be relatively useless for long-term confinement.
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“No of course not.” Elder River said, his eyes never strayed from his son. Tristan wondered how such an old man could have such a young son.
“Then tell me, what do you have that will restrain a tier four,” Tristan asked. He had intended to walk in here and ask for a simple favor that was beneficial for everyone. These people were exhausting, he was not sure why, but common sense and self-reflection seemed absent from them. Maybe it was the inherited power, he didn’t know.
“I have only one thing,” Elder River said, “But I can’t use it without at least three of the elders agreeing.”
Tristan frowned, he was sure he could get Elder Plains to agree. Elder Forrest was dead, so was his brother, and, and. Tristan started laughing. Little Tris was Elder Forrest, the idea was so ludicrous that it was funny. The rightful ruler of the Lord of the Underworld’s subjects was a newly six-year-old girl.
“I can get you that, now what have you got for me?” Tristan smiled.
“Well, it's the Abyssal Chalice,” Elder River said, “It manifests the power of the grand ancestor by consuming the essence of the elders. If three of us aren’t present, we will not exceed its rate of consumption and will lose access to our kerns until the other elders can be gathered.”
That was a weird ability. Tristan had long assumed that the Abyssal Chalice was a soul tool, Vulcan had shown him a similar vision to the one Sai showed. Though any soul tool suppressing the wielder would be doing it intentionally. Unless there was some trigger or exemption that Tristan was unaware of.
“How does it determine who is an Elder?” Tristan asked. His thought was, that he could just substitute a bunch of essence reservoirs if it only needed a specific amount of essence.
“I don’t know, but I assume the grand ancestor has his ways,” Elder River said.
In other words, Elder River had no idea. Tristan only had access to two soul tools. Vulcan and Conni’s grandmother. One was too powerful to be a realistic comparison, and the other was in the same tier as its owner. Times like this where he could get important answers with little effort made him miss Vulcan.
“Mr Frosty, could you go and get my mother and younger sister?” Tristan was not worried about them being harmed by Frosty. The man would if he was ordered, but Tristan did not see it coming to that. Elder River’s only experience with metal kerns was the alchemist, and he had just watched his son’s chest wounds heal, no way would he risk his son over something like this.
Frosty glanced at Elder River, who gave a simple nod. The guard jogged out of the room silently. Dirty stepped forward to compensate for Frosty’s absence.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why do you need your sister?” Elder River said.
“She is the current heir of the Forrest Caldera. Siren should have killed Elder Forrest earlier today, so she is the new Elder,” Tristan explained.
Elder River smiled happily at the news, “Serves that young upstart right for causing this mess.”
Tristan frowned. Elder River was sheltering the elder that started this mess, so what did that mean Elder Plain should have done to him?
Elder River held out his hand in much the same way Tristan did when summoning Vulcan. Dark smoke started coalescing in his palm and dripping between his middle and pointer fingers. It formed a stem and cup before the smoke appeared to pool out into the stand that the cup stood upon.
There was one dramatic difference between this cup and the one Tristan had seen during the sifting. It was empty, no smoky liquid was sitting within it. Without it, the chalice was less impressive. Tristan summoned Vulcan again, causing Dirty to tense, but he simply wanted to compare them. He could see nothing that could draw a connection between them. The Abyssal Chalice was not made out of metal, it was made out of glass or stone, so if he didn’t know what it was, Tristan would not have known he was looking at a tier six artifact.
He had thought that artifacts were locked to matching kerns. It appeared that soul tools were the exception. Vulcan pulled essence straight from the primordial realm, and could also activate himself on command, though with only a fraction of his power.
Tristan’s thoughts were interrupted by the return of Frosty. He stepped inside followed by Tris, Helen, and finally Shadow Fist. Tristan narrowed his eyes at the man. He had not told Frosty only to bring Helen and Tris, but bringing another variable could not be safe for the Elder.
“What are you doing here?” Tristan asked.
Shadow Fist shrugged, “Getting in some family time, a walk sounded nice,” He glanced over Tristan's shoulder and saw the two men trying to get custom helmets off, “That is the reason Forrest never let me get to tier three.”
“If you cause any issues, you will be joining them,” Tristan threatened, “Either way, how does the succession work in the Forrest Caldera? Who is the new elder if Siren killed Elder Forrest?”
Shadow Fist grinned, “Helen would be, but she is currently married to me. My treason disqualifies me, so it is passed on to Helen’s eldest child.”
Tristan raised an eyebrow and pointed at Tris, “So her?”
Shadow Fist nodded and looked at his daughter, “Honey, you’re the new Elder Forrest.”
“I don’t want to be Elder Forest. I am Princess Forrest,” Little Tris said, “Also why is there a man sitting in a bunch of flowers?”
Tristan was about to pass her words off until he realized that she had said sitting. He spun around to find Merrick sitting up and looking around blearily at everyone.
Merrick yawned then said, “Dad, you look like a raisin who was left in the sun for a thousand years.”