Theo and Salire documented creating a fourth tier potion. Even just looking at the raw essence felt like viewing something momentous. The reaction was clean. Almost too stable for the alchemist’s liking, considering how powerful the resulting potion would be when compared to the last tier. The liquid inside the flask bubbled, leaving small amounts of froth near the top of the vial, but nothing more. What was left was a shining red liquid, glimmering with potential.

“There it is,” Theo said, smiling to himself as the prompt appeared.

[Unique Potion]

You are the first person to craft this potion. This potion has never been created by another mortal. Please select an attribute to boost from the following list:

Strength, Vigor, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, Willpower.

“You got it? Same deal as last time?” Salire asked.

No, it wasn’t the same prompt as last time. The last prompt claimed it was about a ‘potion of significance’ while this one was about a ‘unique potion’. The difference was subtle. Gaining attributes from the potions that were on a world-based timer made enough sense, since their creation came from impossibly difficult-to-find reagents. But this new prompt came from making a potion someone else hadn’t made. The surprising part was that others had made potions like the Potion of Limited Foresight and so on.

“I got it,” Theo said. “I should go full Wisdom, shouldn’t I?”

“Maybe. I guess that depends.” Salire placed her hands on her hips, humming for a moment. “Wait, we’re going to make at least one potion for all the other potions we’ve done, aren’t we?”

“Yep. That’s a lot of free attributes. How many unique potions have we made? Aside from this one?”

“Twenty… something. I don’t know,” Salire said, going through her notes. “Wait, twenty times ten is two-hundred.”

“Two-hundred attributes to distribute how I see fit.” Theo rubbed his hands together. He felt a warm sensation flooding through his brain as he selected Wisdom on the prompt. “That’s insane.”

Salire swallowed hard, shaking her head. “I’m kinda scared.”

Theo watched as his precognition got slightly better. Ten points put him in another realm of Wisdom, giving him about two seconds of predictive power. On top of that, his Wisdom of the Soul prompts would give him better information. More mana didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t needed. While this would take a while for him to get used to, it was worth it.

“Oh,” Theo said, looking at the potion in his hand. “I guess I should inspect this.”

Salire chuckled.

[Major Healing Potion]

[Potion]

Epic

Created by: Theo Spencer

Grade: Good Quality

Alignment:

Tero’gal (Perfect Bond)

A healing potion. Drink to restore health.

Effect:

Instantly restores 250 health points.

“That’s a fine potion,” Theo said, holding it up to the light. The clarity was great, but so were most of his other potions now. The quality could have been higher, but it was good for now. “Not sure what I think about the process.”

“You might unlock an ability to make it easier.” Salire took the potion, wedging the stopper into the top. “How do you feel?”

“I’m good.” Theo watched as Salire moved across the room before she actually moved. He wondered why people didn’t take more Wisdom, but it was a tricky attribute. The points required to get to where he was likely only benefited artisans. Dexterity and Intelligence might have been more useful for them anyway. “I can see you move before you move.”

“Are you seeing fates, yet?” Salire asked.

“Nope. That must be reserved for ultra-high levels. Thank god for that, though.”

“You’re becoming your own god… look at the alignment on that potion.”

“You know what’s funny? The gods aren’t actually gods. Which means I was right when I got here. They’re just really strong people that convinced the system to give them a new name.” Theo paused for a long moment. Salire clearly had no interest in engaging in religious debates. He cast his eyes to the ceiling, as though he could peer through it and into the heavens. “Now that I said that out loud, I’m worried. What if…”

“Uh-oh. Here he goes…”

“I’ll be back. Could you get the materials for all possible fourth tier potions?”

“I’m on it, boss!” Salire offered a curtsey, dashing off.

The moment Theo fell through the veil, he felt that something was off. The void was turbulent, no longer a static thing. It was as though a great wind blew against him, holding him back as he crossed over the Bridge. Things were too weird. He wouldn’t risk crossing the Bridge the right way and he wrapped himself in his willpower-fueled cloak of shadows. Pushing against the force was rough, but Theo landed in his own realm soon enough.

“Problem!” Belgar shouted, rushing through the sparse village to find Theo. He was out of breath, doubled over as he heaved. “There’s a war.”

Theo’s brow knit, his senses spreading over his planet. They weren’t being attacked. “A war?”

“Yeah. I’m sure… yeah, there he is.” Belgar pointed as Khahar appeared with a serious look on his face.

“Theo. Come.” Khahar jerked his head to the side. Theo followed, retreating to the cozy cottage.

As the pair drew closer, Theo could hear many voices within. Khahar threw the door open, revealing quite a few gods crowded within the tight space. He stood there for too long, taking in the minor and mid-tier gods he had never seen before. Among all those gathered, he was surprised to see a few faces and unsurprised that others were missing. Balkor had finally accepted his invitation.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“How screwed are they?” Theo asked.

“Almost completely,” Khahar said, shutting the door and pulling Theo aside. They found a place to talk where the others couldn’t hear. “I’m guessing you caught on already.”

“This is why you don’t tell me anything, huh? Because you know I’ll figure it out.” Theo sighed. There might have been a world where it didn’t have to go down like this, but the early ascendants had to sleep in the bed they made. “Who is the big man making war?”

“Void made the first move, which I didn’t expect. The others haven’t left the void.”

“How many are there? Twelve?”

“Only four right now. I don’t know where the others are.”

Theo scratched his chin. He recalled his meeting with the system and the twelve spots there. Twelve spots for twelve gods. Not the pretenders that claimed to be gods. These guys were the real deal. “Are they destroying realms?”

“Nope. Might be worse for those holding realms. They’re being stripped of power.”

The most interesting part of that was Khahar’s position among the gods. Theo didn’t know if his old friend had ascended as a god, or just as the owner of Khahak and the Throne of the Arbiter. If he had to guess, he would say Khahar knew this might happen, and planned accordingly. What this meant for the other ascendants was hard to say. The heated conversation within the cottage revealed how desperate their situation was. The alchemist was snapped out of his contemplations when an alert sprung up.

[Attack Attempt Failed]

An unknown entity has tried and failed to attack the realm of Tero’gal. The reason for this failure is unknown.

Theo narrowed his eyes, feeling around his realm as though it were his own body. He felt the two thrones hidden here pulsing, pushing back against whatever it was that had attacked. But the attacker wasn’t hard to determine. It was one of four interlopers. A moment later, he heard a voice fill his mind.

“Oh, you stink.” It was Void. No surprise there. “Let me in so we can have a chat.”

Khahar nodded at Theo. The alchemist scoffed. “Part of your predictions?”

“One of a few. Let him in. The old rules should still apply.”

Theo sighed. He had absolute authority here. If that authority failed, he had the thrones. Had he faced any other entity coming into his realm, he would have rejected them. But it was easy to assume Void was the person he needed to get to the far side of the void. Well, the entity’s name and the place were going to get confusing.

“Come on in,” Theo said, giving his mental confirmation to the god.

A purple-black portal appeared, and the short man stepped out. The features of his face were now hidden, obscured behind a swirling vortex of black. He crossed his arms, tutting at the alchemist. “Took you long enough. Lots of trash to clean up! I’ll just head in there and slaughter them, if you don’t mind.”

“Not gonna happen,” Theo said, staring the god down.

“Oh, yeah?” Void asked with a giggle. “You guys went too long skirting the rules. And… You sneaky little butthole. Thrones? THRONES? He isn’t even the real arbiter!”

“The Throne of the Arbiter isn’t here. It was fused with a High Elderling Realm before your arrival.” Instead of spitting in the god’s face, Khahar bowed his head. “The ascendants of this world have no hope to resist you, Void. But the planet is broken.”

“Now he’s gonna ask for my help.” Void groaned. “I’m doing all the heavy lifting, and he has the balls to ask me for help. Look how confused the demon is. He needs to work on his poker face.”

Khahar cleared his throat. “If you give him instruction on that, he might actually beat me at the game.”

“Hah! I like that. There’s a hold on realms with thrones in them, so consider yourself lucky. No other realm is safe. I’m happy purging them all.” Void crossed his arms. He might have been glaring at Theo and Khahar from behind that swirling mask, but neither could tell. “Come on. What’s the pitch?”

“I’m sure you recall the shards.” Khahar bowed his head.

“Of course.”

“They aren’t here.”

“Yeah, they are.” Void tilted his head to the side.

“Did you check?”

“No, but they should be here. Everything would be in… disorder if… they weren’t… Okay I get it.” Void scoffed, waving a dismissive hand.

“You’ll need someone to go get them. Someone like Theo.”

“Why?”

“You cannot cross into the mortal realms. Not even a splinter realm.” Khahar’s face took on a look of confusion.

“I can go anywhere I want. We’re not bound by the stupid rules you guys made way-back-when. We’re already working on dismantling them so we can fix this stupid world.”

But if Void could just go pluck the shards from the far end of the void, why hadn’t he? Theo couldn’t figure this god out. There was something off about him. Perhaps he hadn’t gained his full power yet, or he was diminished in Tero’gal. Whatever the case, he wasn’t able to impart his full will on the world.

“You need us,” Theo said, self-assured. “Otherwise you would have gone. Right? So, why can’t you?”

Theo felt Void narrow his gaze, but saw nothing. “You remind me of someone… Very annoying.” After a hauntingly long pause, Void clapped his hands together once. “Okay, jerks. Here’s the deal. Since you’re the only two idiots not peeing your pants, you’re gonna fix this.”

Theo and Khahar shared a look. Only Khahar smiled as he said, “That was the plan.”

“Horns, get the shards back to the planet. Tall-and-fuzzy, muzzle these not-gods. You guys can designate a realm for each god to migrate to. Hey, don’t worry. You can keep yours if you have a throne. Everyone else needs to fight for a spot in the pantheon.”

“The twelve spots, right?” Theo asked.

“Yeah. Four are… Oh, you crafty little bastard!” Void turned, growing at nothing. “Do the job. Bye.”

Void vanished without another word.

Theo turned to Khahar, shaking his head. “How much of that did you predict?”

“What I saw was fuzzy. But I saw what drew him away.” A smile crept across Khahar’s face. “He didn’t expect our fake gods to fight back. Glantheir does battle.”

Things were officially moving too fast for Theo. He had big plans back in the mortal realm, and not enough time to accomplish what he planned. It seemed as though everyone with even a hint of power had plans of their own. But for once he was happy to see the once-gods rendered powerless. Compared to a true god, they were nothing. That answered a question Theo had since he arrived here. The ‘gods’ seemed so without power that they were useless. Well, there was the answer.

“Let’s organize these lesser ascendants,” Theo said, clapping a hand on Khahar’s shoulder.

Khahar nodded his agreement and they headed over to the cottage. The moment the door opened, the room went silent. Theo looked over those gathered for the meeting. Ascendants from every race were there, all in various states of anger or disbelief. The looks they shot to the entrance were as varied as their race. The alchemist was sad to see Benton among them.

“Here’s the deal.” Khahar’s voice carried over the crowd, silencing whatever murmurs remained. “We won’t tell you what to do. But if you return to your realms, you might die.”

“As in… die?” one ascendant asked. “Forever?”

Balkor’s eyes flashed from the crowd, the flare of green darkening the room. The dronon ascendant was one of few higher gods. Theo couldn’t get a read on him, but he could have been desperate.

“That’s right. Tero’gal and Kahak are happy to take you and whatever souls you want to bring over. Otherwise, I’m certain the other realms will collapse.” Khahar’s voice had a tone of finality that gave Theo chills.

“Even the high realms?” Balkor asked.

Theo locked eyes with the necromantic dronon ascendant. He looked like all other dronon he had seen, but with pale green skin and faded green eyes. One eye had lost its color, becoming a muted gray. He wore tattered robes. His fight was long, and the alchemist couldn’t forget how much of a catalyst he was. Evil or not, he helped get the world to this point.

“That’s right. Unless you can secure a spot in the new pantheon, you’re screwed.”

More questions came from the crowd. Everyone was upset about losing their realms, not understanding how an upstart like Theo got to keep his. Khahar didn’t give direct answers, instead skirting the issue and telling them to take it up with the new management. They only had so much time, and Khahar wasn’t willing to wait.

“We can’t explain it any differently,” Khahar said, holding his hands up to silence whatever questions came next. “Settle matters in your realms. Or die. That’s up to you.”