Nick Smith

Adventurer Level: 7

Human – American

Dumbfounded, I met Veern's angry stare. What's the rush? Did something happen? What's going on? It's probably stupid to ask, though. I turned my attention back to the tablets and began to read again.

--

Day 94

The daemon emits T2 magical energy by default. A significant amount of it, much more than the elves or dwarves do. It's possible this is why the tear is radiating this type of magic. Further experimentation is required.

Daemon physiology is fascinating. Organs shift in their purposes as others are removed, and shift back once they regrow. Not certain if this is the case for all daemons, but this thing is made to survive. Very useful for my purposes.

Day 96

It spoke to me today. Threats, of course, but the fact that it was able to learn English to do so is pretty incredible. It looks like a simple beast with a vaguely humanoid form, but there's a cunning intellect in there. It's a shame that I don't have the luxury of experimenting with its intelligence.

Day 101

My research has allowed the Malos Organization to discover a method of "summoning" a daemon. Essentially, a miniature tear in this reality is formed and a daemonic presence is pulled through by force. It's outside of my expertise.

I informed the leaders of the fact that I have no need of a second daemon at the moment, and explained that daemons seem to be strong enough to be a risk so it's best to leave it be for now. They listened, for now.

Day 103

The daemon died today. The timing is very suspicious. It is also of concern that I can't seem to pin down the cause of death. I think that someone killed it, likely to force the issue of a summoning ritual.

Or, I'm being paranoid and it simply passed due to having too many of its organs removed at once. It continued to radiate T2 magic for three hours after its death. Unlike with the elves and dwarves, though, its organs stopped emitting the magic even while on life support.

The significance of this is unclear.

Day 104

The ritual was performed today, and required three sacrifices. Orcs were used because of their large amount of blood. The daemon was successfully summoned and subdued. I'm still combing over the cadavers of the orcs to see if their use in the ritual affected their physical make-up, writing this while eating lunch. Veggie sandwich. Meat that didn't use to be sapient is difficult to come by, and I refuse to allow myself to sink that low.

Lunch is done. The orc's physiology remained unchanged. More importantly, the new daemon also speaks English. Shared knowledge, or did it have previous exposure to our language somehow? The only things it will tell me are what it wants to do with my skin and organs. Perhaps I will take some of its recommendations to heart with my experiments.

Day 107

Comparing daemon organs to "mer" organs has led to some fascinating discoveries. While transplanting organs between the different mer species results in immediate rejection, transplantation of daemonic organs into mer is possible.

Rejection is still an issue, but it can be mitigated with immunosuppressants.

Day 108

Confirmed benefits of daemonic organ transplant in elves:

-Faster overall healing. Not as fast as a daemon, but much faster than should be possible with elven metabolism and physiology.

-More potent magical potential. Average "storage" increase of 47% detected in the magic core of hosts.

These are initial results. We're still a ways away from human testing.

--

"Fuckin' hells," Rebis muttered. "Even my stomach's starting to roil."

I gave him a sympathetic look.

"No more interruptions," Veern growled. "This is important. Read."

--

Day 113

Over the course of the last few days, security forces have been taking the daemon for interrogation without explanation. Today, it escaped while being transported from my lab. Instead of trying to flee, it began killing everyone it came across.

I heard the screams and knew what happened. I locked the door to my lab and sat there, waiting to see what would happen. Should have I been afraid? The screaming and shouting were getting closer, but that could have been my imagination. Why wasn't I afraid?

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Security managed to kill the thing before it got to my lab. In total, it killed eighteen people. Mostly "civilians", if such a thing even exists anymore. Still, it's a significant impact on our current population.

I envy them.

Day 117

A new daemon has been summoned and additional precautions have been taken. Experimentation will continue.

Day 120

The tears are beginning to radiate more T2 magic than before. Could this be because of the summonings? That doesn't make sense, we didn't see a measurable difference after the first one. Why would a second one make this kind of impact. Is this unrelated?

Day 121

I've confirmed that more summonings have taken place. More radiation is coming from the tears, and the amount is still increasing. A meeting was held to discuss this, and it was revealed that almost every Malos site has a daemon captive.

However, the increase of radiation didn't occur in concurrence with the summonings. As a result, we've concluded that the daemons are likely to invade soon.

We've decided against warning the mer. Even with my experiments, they've killed far more of us than we have of them. I don't know whether we deserved such treatment or not, but said treatment has decided their fate. Perhaps our own, as well.

Day 122

I haven't slept. Been running every experiment I can think of to learn as much as we can. Any sort of weakness we can take advantage of, and how to control the goddamned tears. Nothing, though. No eureka moments, no break-throughs. One hundred and twenty two days, and barely anything to show for it.

All of us have been armed in preparation for the daemonic invasion. I've been given an M18 semi-automatic pistol and two magazines of 9mm ammunition. Never thought I'd see a gun again.

Hope it works.

Day 125

Well, the gun bought me some time, at least. The daemons have invaded. Malos sites began going dark almost immediately. It didn't take us long to figure out that they were tracking their captured comrades.

Unfortunately, this realization came too late. The daemons have all but annihilated our security forces. The last bits are holding out as I write this. We're going to evacuate, try to make it to the ocean. Might find shelter to the south.

--

"That's it," I said.

"Guess they didn't make it out," Gali muttered.

"Nah, they might have," Rebis said, glancing at me sympathetically. "Maybe they just left their notes behind because they were in a hurry."

"Either scenario is possible," Larie said. "However, it is extremely unlikely for a mortal to have survived this long. Though, it's not as if I know how long humans live."

"Going to be honest, I hope he died a painful death," Ithrima said.

I stared at the tablet, a mixture of anger and anguish fighting for dominance within me. This barely answered any of my questions. Woke up a dragon, traveled across two countries, fought a bunch of vampires and monsters, and THIS is what I get out of it?

A journal written by a monster disguised as a human that I had to read aloud to everyone. This was supposed to be a clue? To what? Where do we go from here?

I looked up at Veern, "I-"

Its face stopped me cold. The only one here madder than me was the arch-fae.

"Enough!" Veern shouted. "We don't have time for this."

"What is the matter, friend?" Larie asked.

The arch-fae rounded on the lich with its teeth bared.

"FRIEND? You have NO idea what this cost," it growled. "I wouldn't have agreed to help you if I had known. You should owe ME a favor!"

"What d-"

"Don't bother asking," Veern sighed. "You should know better than that by now. I can only reveal what I am meant to reveal in order to fulfill my newfound obligations."

"What's going on?" I asked. "What obligations?"

"YOU! FUCK YOU!" Veern shouted at me. "Who the hell do you think you are? Hiding the fact that you're a-"

Veern's eyes rolled into the back of its head for a few seconds. Yulk and Larie moved forward to help, but the arch-fae quickly recovered and waved them off.

"FINE!" it shouted. "Fine. I get it. Nick. Nash. Yulk. I'm going to teleport you three to the Deepwyld Forest. You've only been here for about a week, so-"

"A week!?" Nash demanded.

"Impossible. How can it have been a week already?" Gali asked.

"I don't owe you any kind of expla-" Veern cut off as its eyes rolled back again.

"Veern, are you okay?" Larie asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. Stop asking questions you measly fucks," Veern said once it recovered. "Apparently, I DO owe you an explanation. But we're pressed for time. The area surrounding this clearing is under my protection. Once I realized the intensity of the task, I applied a time dilation magic to my protection that slowed down time for you while it passed normally outside of this clearing. Then I got to work while you didn't starve to death or wander off."

"What about the rain?" Yulk asked, staring at the torrent raging above us. "Surely the land outside this clearing would have flooded by now."

"A simple glamour," Veern answered dismissively. "I guessed that you would be concerned by the obvious passage of time. Watching the sun rise and set faster than normal tends to cause mortals some distress."

"Yeah, that would've been freaky," Mako agreed.

"Back on topic, you three are needed in Deepwyld. They're under attack, and you are duty-bound to assist," Veern turned back to Nash, Yulk, and I.

"Duty-bound?" I asked.

"Yes. You are friends with the Deepwylder. Being friends with the fair folk means that they are obligated to help when you ask them to, and you are obligated to help them when they ask you to."

"They asked for my help?"

"Well..." Veern paused for a moment. "I can't go into detail, but something else has asked on their behalf. I'm sure you know my meaning. In exchange for making certain that you get to Deepwyld Forest in a timely manner, they granted me the keywords needed to decipher the tablets."

"So... Even if I say no-"

"You don't GET to say no," Veern said sternly. "What about the rest of you? You're welcome to accompany them."

"Though my curiosity burns, I'm afraid I cannot," Larie said. "I have obligations toward the kobolds in my dungeon."

"Can we?" Rebis asked Gali.

"No," Gali sighed. "If we don't report back a kill-team is going to be sent into the dungeon. Hells, they might already be on their way. Don't want Simeeth and Larie to get hurt."

"Ah, fuck you're right," Rebis muttered.

"Then it is settled. Say your farewells," Veern said. "Be quick."

We gathered around each other, shaking hands and wishing each other luck. I thanked each of them for their help. Then, Yulk and Larie shook hands and whispered to each other for a few moments.

Yulk and Larie strode over to the tablets that I had left on the ground. Yulk dug around in his pack while Larie spread the tablets out. After a few more moments, it was clear that Yulk was making a charcoal rubbing of the tablets.

"I did say be quick, yes?" Veern demanded, tapping its foot impatiently.

"Then you must consider it quite convenient that I am already finished," Yulk said with a smile.

"I..." the arch-fae paused for a moment. "Whatever, let's get this done. All three of you need to be touching. You can hold hands or put your hands on each other's shoulder or whatever you want."

Veern waved its hands urgently, rushing us together.

"Send word of your travels," Heino said as gathered. "We'll make sure Larie stays informed, too."

"Oh, you'll be visiting me?" Larie asked.

"Yeah, why not? As long as you're alright with it."

Yulk and Nash placed their hands on my shoulders and turned to look at Veern.

"Yes, of course I'll be fine with it. It's been so long since I had good comp-"

Veern waved his hand, and everything went dark.