Tristan smiled as he remembered the apoplectic rage that Frank had displayed when Luke had absconded with his boat. Did that make Tristan a bully? Probably, but he had just paid the man something worth multiple year's wages. He could buy a few new boats with that.
He dunked his head underwater to examine the lake floor. It was surprisingly deep, in his mind the lake bottom was only twenty or so feet down. That was naive, the trough carved by the crashing fortress and then filled with water was enormous. Tristan possessed better than average eyes compared to the caldera’s average, but only average among tier fours. The bottom was only visible because of the handful of light elementals illuminating the lake floor.
Even that was a hazy glow. A low cloud of mud and silt clung to the bottom of the lake obscuring the final few feet. The sound of metal clanking as it was forced together was easy to hear through the water. Judging by how far apart the glowing areas were, the fortress was quite large.
Seeing nothing that he could use, Tristan pulled his face out of the water and took his seat in the center of the boat. He ended up in the middle due to his weight forcing the bow upwards if he sat at either end. Luke and Merrick shared a boat with Tristan and neither were all that heavy. Luke because no one else liked him, Merrick, because he had not been around long enough to dislike Luke.
“See anything new?” Merrick asked.
Tristan shook his head, “If I did not know better, I would think that they were standing around doing nothing.”
“The brain ones don’t have legs,” Luke helpfully interjected.
Merrick frowned, “That is something I don’t quite understand, why are there other types of elementals, and why are we only seeing them now.”
“Simple, people with kerns create the skeletal elementals, people with animas create the stringy muscular ones, and,” Tristan was not entirely sure why it was called this, “people with dominions create the brains in jelly. Everyone native to the Caldera has a kern for whatever reason.”
Merrick raised an eyebrow, “How would you know? Have you met anyone with special brains or muscles?”
They heaved on the wire construct that Tristan had built. It was not the most essence intensive thing he had made, but it was the most focus intensive one. The architect alloy was unhelpful as there was not a large enough net made of razor wire in the caldera to copy. The warriors had draped the square net over some empty barrels and kept it in place by holding onto the edge. At almost five hundred feet to a side, the net covered over an acre and had taken multiple times Tristan’s essence reserves. He drew on Vulcan’s reserve and was pleased to see the dissonance was slowly being diluted by consistent use.
Siren had taken advantage of the hydrophobic nature of oil and coated the razor net with the poison. After a few hours of frantic work, they now had to sit above the Lord of the Underworld, keeping a large metal in place. It was hurry up and wait in the truest sense.
Tristan summoned Vulcan, “This guy is from a different plane and I’m pretty sure he has all three.”
Merrick looked at the lamp post blankly, “Is this one of those times where a warrior talks to their weapon.”
“Nah,” Luke waved his hand, “The artifact is like a pet, like the Abyssal Chalice, but way stronger.”
Tristan felt a wave of dissatisfaction and concern from Vulcan. Two times in a single day, that was a good sign. Vulcan was present enough to interpret the world through Tristan’s senses and respond to some extent. It would not be long before true communication was reestablished.
“That’s a heroic level artifact?” Merrick jumped a little, “But he’s only tier four.”
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“He was tier zero when he used the Abyssal Chalice,” Luke bragged, “And no it’s whatever comes after the heroic tiers. Tristan what comes after the heroic tiers.”
Tristan half refocused on the conversation, “Tiers eleven through fifteen are legend tiers.”
That he had gotten from Vulcan’s memory. Hailey had also called Vulcan a legend. Not that it mattered, when a person could flatten or save a civilization in an afternoon, legend seemed to be an apt description. His knowledge of the realms was basic. Mortal, heroic, legend, then a gap of a few with the gods occupying something between legend and saint. There seemed to be varying levels of gods as well, with a shock he realized that meant that the Steel Saint was a minimum of eleven tiers higher than Vulcan. No wonder he was worried about a death cult attaining that sort of power.
“So how does an anima and domain work,” Merrick asked. He appeared unconvinced but enjoyed the banter more than the silence of doing nothing.
“Conni can make himself move like fire, it lets him fight a tier up with respectable ease,” Luke answered.
“Luke!” Tristan hissed. Then he turned to Merrick, “Do not spread that around, he only told us that in confidence.”
“Huh, I thought your girlfriend's dad was safe to tell?” Luke frowned.
“Eve is not his girlfriend,” Merrick huffed.
“Agreed, we are just friends,” Tristan said.
“Chase and Sun-Set sounded just like that, all the way up until they had to elope to escape her dad,” Luke gave the two of them a sly smile, “I hear they have a kid now.”
Merrick gave Tristan a betrayed expression, “You wouldn’t do that to me. Would you?”
Tristan raised an eyebrow and decided to join Luke in teasing the man, “Can you think of anyone who has done more to keep her safe? Anyone who would satisfy your specific conditions?”
“Gravis,” Merrick immediately said.
“But Siren is old,” Luke said.
“Hey, we’re both in our forties,” Merrick challenged.
“That’s old,” Luke pushed back.
A large bubble hit the surface of the water causing all of them to focus on the center of their formation. It was large enough that Tristan had assumed that it was an attack of some kind. No, it was just a freakishly huge bubble, bigger than any of the boats. The other three boats were placed in a circle around the net, but they were too far away to hear without shouting.
Dane had received the resistance force, a surprise. While it was listed in the alchemy book, metal, earth, and air were the only ones listed as able to get it. There was not even a water unconfirmed addendum. Regardless of the oddity, the force was the mirror of persistence. The world around Dane would support his motions if he applied his force.
It was yet another one that Tristan wanted. The growing issue of his density would be solved if the world would simply support his weight. It allowed for other things, such as walking on liquid water, but Tristan did not care about that.
Dane wobbled as he leaned out of the boat and used his force to brace his forearms directly on the surface to peer at the bottom of the lake. Tristan was able to see bubbles rising from the center of the lake, they were all smaller now, but it still gave the appearance that the body of water was boiling. He did the only thing he could, he threw his metal sense as far down as it could go.
There was a vague sense that a large amount of metal sat at the bottom of the lake. Unfortunately, he could only feel that due to the sheer quantity, it was not within his normal sensory range. It was similar to how a stove could contain the brightness of the fire, but not the heat. In the dark, it was possible to tell where the flames were despite not seeing them.
“Are either of your senses picking up anything?” Tristan asked.
“No, my air sense is getting the bubbles. Don’t breathe it, the gas is very toxic. One part carbon two parts oxygen, it will probably be filling the fortress,” Luke said, “It also starves out fire, essence powered flame should still work to a limited degree.”
So gravity fire was still on the table, “Let me know when the bubbles stop. I will start charging up then.”
“What are you two talking about?” Merrick asked. He had a white knuckled grip on the net, obviously, his courage was real. The man feared the fight but still faced it despite his fear.
Tristan decided to keep Merrick’s mind occupied, “You know, the essence sense that everyone has. At tier zero, you can feel your element anywhere within thirty feet. It’s super useful.”
“You actually train it outside your body?” Merrick seemed surprised which got an eye roll from Luke, “What, it just never seemed useful. I mean I can see how metal would be useful with what weapons are…”
Merrick was interrupted by Dane yelling, “Incoming!”
Tristan started collecting golden flames. Red flickered within the gold. He smiled one or two more gravity blasts and he might get the flames clean enough for Vulcan to return. Then he felt it. There was an island of corroded tower steel shooting up at an alarming speed.
“Mortals, this is your last chance to kneel before your king!”
That was the voice he knew and hated. Tristan was ready for the final battle to decide the fate of the Caldera.