“What gives?” Tresk asked, folding her arms and pouting.
Standing in the Dreamwalk, Theo looked over the imagined space, his eyes tracing the lines of the hills outside Broken Tusk. He could see his golem-operated farm here, although none of his creations were working. The area seemed calmer than it normally was, as the buzz of activity they normally experienced was absent. He felt no urgency to get things done, instead experiencing only the soothing effects of the dream.
“They finally caught on to us,” Theo said, shaking his head. He wasn’t surprised. The new gods wouldn’t let this fly forever. He had expected them to clamp down on it sooner, but knew they weren’t at full strength. “I can’t use my willpower exploit.”
“I just want to see some dragons.”
“The dragons you make are always a little weird, anyway. Even with Pogo as reference.”
Tresk narrowed her eyes at him. “Weird? How?”
“Too many toes,” Theo said, dismissing the subject with a wave. “This is good, though.”
“Yeah, we love the new gods. Praise the new gods and whatever. I’m just worried about when my Zaul cores go poof.”
“Not gonna happen. I think he’s making a run for the new pantheon. They’re gonna call him Shadow or something like that. Since they don’t use their real names.”
“Hah! Gottem. Alright, guess I’m fighting regular monsters. Lame! Wait…”
The Dreamwalk shuddered under their feet. The dark entity she had fought above Qavell came into view, looming menacingly in the sky. Without delay, Tresk mounted Alex and took to the sky. Theo sighed. Why would the system allow her to summon that but not a dragon? Probably because she was attempting to make her own version of a dragon, rather than the real one. She had summoned a vision of the dark entity that was close enough to the real thing. Of course, she was using the Tara’hek Union skill. It made Theo feel funny, but offered no other negative effects.
Turning away from the battle after watching for a bit—Alex’s dragon-like features were becoming more visible by the day—Theo turned to his alchemy studies. Tero’gal’s form of alchemy was already turning out to be very weird.
As expected, the Dreamwalk was restrictive again. No amount of willpower would allow him to overpower the dream, forcing him to stick to only the things he had done before. It was an understandable restriction, considering how much they had already exploited it. Instead, he turned his attention to what he knew and his sharpened instincts. Tero’gal didn’t just generate a form of alchemy that was aligned with the ideals of the Throneworld, it took into account other things.
Drogramath’s alchemy was never meant to produce industrial quantities of potions. The designer thought his people would be on the run for their entire lives, never settling down. The system was correcting itself, and Theo doubted this would be the last time. For now, all Theo could do was figure out how his new style worked.
“Go over what you know. Work from there.”
Theo’s wisdom told him he was already on the right track. He imagined a 50-unit version of Throk’s stills—one that he had made for very small batches. It filled half-way with mashed reagents at a thought, filling the rest of the way with Purified Water. The thing about Tero’gal Alchemy was how sensitive it was. Water was inert, as far as alchemy went, but heating the mixture had caused explosive problems. Assuming heat was the only problem was shortsighted, though.
As if taking a page from Theo’s own thought process, the system and Tero’gal had designed a form of alchemy that took many factors into account. Quantity was the most important. Adding too many reagents into one place would cause an explosion. Next came the heat. High heat runs were out of the question. Only the lowest possible heat—below boiling at first—would work. That heat needed to be run over a very long period. Next came the unseen interaction within the still itself.
The interaction of heat with impurities was unknown, so he couldn’t test it here. He could only make theories. As the heat increased, more impurities were released. Those impurities were pulled from the mix by the blocks of iron, allowing the water to mix with the mashed essence. It didn’t seem to matter if the iron stayed at the bottom of the mixture, but that was fine.
“So, that’s how it works,” Theo said, nodding as he was confident in himself. He couldn’t test it, but this was good enough for now. Reagents, water, an iron block, slow heat, and small batches. That was it. “Then we have another problem…”
Theo reached inward, feeling his Tero’gal Mage’s Core. This was the core most similar to his Toru’aun core. It was a standard mage’s core specializing in runes. The Dreamwalk allowed him to practice with his wards. He could reproduce all the things he had done before with no exceptions. Unlike his previous core, it was much easier to form spells ad hoc. And the Willpower-Fueled Ward skill was powerful. He applied a ward to a nearby stone, inspecting the effect.
[Lesser Reveal]
[Advanced Ward]
Creates a reactive field of [Reveal]. Field only activates when enemies are detected in range.
Trigger:
Detect Enemy
Duration:
9537 days.
“That’s not normal.”
The first time Theo had cast the Lesser Reveal ward, it lasted a day. With unending willpower, the duration was stupid. Willpower added a bit to the power of wards without skills, but it influenced the size most of all. He created a goblin, watching as a bubble sprung from the rock. It encompassed most of Broken Tusk, which was another improvement over the sphere it had originally created. But that wasn’t new. Theo had used a defensive ward to repel an entire city, even if it almost killed him doing so.
Of all his cores, his Earth Sorcerer’s Core needed no attention. Aligning it with Tero’gal would give him nothing. Theo slotted the core, reaching out with his will. The landscape changed in an instant, tons of dirt mounding up into a pile. He pushed the earth around as though playing with sand, feeling almost no strain on his willpower.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“This would have been useful when Qavell was falling into the ocean…”
Since the Dreamwalk was being weird, Theo felt as though he had a moment to breathe. He realized how much this place had become another dimension where he worked. Instead of probing into his skills, he headed to the coast. The emerald waters of the bay lapped against his feet. The towers he had helped create loomed overhead, standing as sentinels against whatever threat Broken Tusk faced. Qavell sat in the distance, lording over the coastline.
Theo had never earned the right to see that place before it was moved. He sat on the beach, allowing the water to lap against his feet as he gazed out to the ocean. This would be a relaxing trip to the Dreamwalk. For once.
----------------------------------------
“I get it,” Twist groaned, pushing himself to a seated position. “How many shots do you have, anyway?”
Jan watched as the masked elf probed at his chest, feeling the places where the bullets had pierced. “Do you remember what you said to me?”
Twist sighed, falling flat onto his back. Through the one hole in his mask, he gazed skyward. Rain splattered against his mask. The wet mud beneath his body soaked through his tattered clothes. Jan wouldn’t give this up until the elf admitted he was wrong. Although he had no intention of killing Twist, he wanted to inflict some pain. As if acting like a judge, he deemed the elf worth of punishment, not death.
“I try to think of you as little as possible,” Twist said. “When did you get so strong?”
“Do you remember?”
“Let me think… We were standing at the Gate in Boston when the monsters came out. You said something about the biggest betrayal of your life. Was it a blood oath you swore? I can’t remember.”
“I said I would hurt you,” Jan said, stepping over the prone elf. He leveled his enhanced shotgun again, putting pressure on the trigger. “I was going to make you pay. Why did you sneak into the heavens? Why did you seek an audience with Death?”
“He promised me something.”
“There exists no being in the universe more insane than Kuzan, you idiot. He was a ghost in the other world. Dead for how many thousands of years?”
“Three-thousand, I think.”
“You saw what the other version of Death did and thought this one would be different. You’re not that stupid, Twist.”
Jan didn’t need to see the elf’s face to know he was smiling. He tossed a dagger from nowhere. It embedded itself in Jan's shoulder, but he didn’t flinch. The weak poison on it wouldn’t affect him anymore than the rain falling on their heads.
“You’re not him,” Twist said. “You’ll never be him.”
“Never claimed to be,” Jan said, pulling the trigger again. Twist grunted at the low-power impact. He could end it here, but that wasn’t good enough. Payment was due in blood. “What did you want from Death?”
Twist coughed, pulling himself into a seated position. His clothes were ruined, but at least his mask held firm. “He has the souls of my people.”
“No, he doesn’t. He wasn’t Death in the old world. He wasn’t Death after the change—he doesn’t have them. They were placed in the queue, just like the rest of us. When that bird-guy put a stop to the war, he only paused it.”
“What are you suggesting?” Twist asked.
“There’s only one person on this planet bloodthirsty enough to help me get my revenge.”
“That’s laughable. Who couldn’t you kill on your own?”
“Come on,” Jan said, extending his hand. “I think I’ve shot you enough for today.”
“I hope there won’t be more shootings in the future,” Twist said, being pulled to his feet.
“The damage you caused to Earth was minimal. Shockingly,” Jan said, patting Twist on the back. “My nephew told me all about what you did before then. One sin isn’t enough to condemn you to death.”
“How many are, then?”
“About five,” Jan said, turning away. He could feel Twist’s murderous intent, but it faded. “Come on. We’re taking a trip to see the elves. Leon has some questions to answer.”
“Okay. I’m with you, now,” Twist said, jogging to catch up. “I’ve never killed a ghost.”
----------------------------------------
Salire took notes as they inspected the still in the morning. The slow heating was going well, and the iron block inside was collecting unwanted material. The theories Theo had formed, along with the tests he and Salire had already done seemed true. But there were a lot of intricate parts that needed to be sorted out.
“How long do you think this will take?” Salire asked.
“This is just a test,” Theo said, inspecting the essence in the flask. The condenser worked fine, it was just the still part they needed to work on. “I don’t think we have everything down yet.”
“At least the back end is working fine,” Salire said, flicking the condenser coil. A drop of essence fell into the flask.
“Let's get a few orders in with Throk. Get me one that has a spinning paddle of iron in the middle, one with a copper paddle, both of the previous but with a pressurized tank, and one that jiggles.”
“Jiggles?” Salire asked, writing what he said down, but shrugging. “Whatever you say, boss.”
Theo turned the still off, watching as Salire bounded down the stairs. This version was very close to what they needed, but it was missing something. “Hey, Salire!” Theo shouted down the stairs. “Tell Throk to make like… twenty versions. Just whatever he can think of to move the contents around, heat them in different ways, add pressure, and so on.”
“Got it!” Salire said, digging into the money box. “He’s gonna need a serious bribe!”
Once Theo was satisfied that the still was off, he headed out. There was a rental merchant on the first floor, but there wouldn’t be many sales. While they had a few things on hand, almost everything had gone into reserve for the town. Until they had a reliable way to make more potions, selling them was the least of his worries. Thankfully, his income stream didn’t cease with the potions. His ventures throughout town would allow him to toss gold coins around just as he had done before.
Theo headed through Xol’sa’s portal, finding both him and Zarali on the second floor. He tried to turn around when he saw them planning for the wedding, but was unable to escape.
“Theo!” Xol’sa shouted. “I have something for you.”
Zarali rolled her eyes, going back to diagrams of the venue. She grumbled to herself.
“What is it?” Theo asked, praying to whatever new god would listen.
“Research for your problem. Come on,” Xol’sa said, gesturing up the stairs.
“Don’t be too long!” Zarali shouted. “Also, Theo… How is my brother?”
“Too much to explain,” Theo said, shrugging. “He’s kinda… the leader in Tero’gal, now. Yeah, it’s weird. I’ll take you the next time I go.”
“I’m too busy,” Zarali said, waving him off. “I just wanted to make sure he was alive.”
Dronon were brutal. Theo headed up the stairs with Xol’sa, finding an endless scatter of books strewn about the room. The wizard was far too excited about this.
“So, you’re aware that most records from the early days of the world are gone, right?” Xol’sa asked.
“Of course,” Theo said, looking over the books. Most were written in languages he didn’t know, but he spotted a few scribed in Cyrilic. “The Khahari?”
“That’s right. With Khahar gone, they’re giving up some of their secrets. I suppose that was an order… or something. Anyway, there are some interesting mentions of those giant crystals we saw with my people.” Xol’sa grabbed four books, setting them out next to each other. “You can read this script, right? The Sacred Language of the Khahari?”
“Yeah, this is Russian from my world. Khahar thought it was funny to pretend like it was a sacred language.”
“I don’t see the humor. Anyway, it took me a while to learn the language. But they recorded the time when the Bara’thier left the world. It was early in this world’s life. Even before the First Ascension War.”
“That’s interesting,” Theo said, reading over the sections Xol’sa had marked. “Wait, they knew the method they used to move the shards?”
“That’s right. Khahar left behind the recipe to ensnare the Great Shards.”
It wasn’t as complicated as Theo had expected, but there was more information about those shards. He read through the books, even after Zarali was shouting downstairs. Xol’sa stood there, waiting for Theo to reach the good part.
“Your people didn’t send themselves adrift on their own,” Theo said, looking up at the space elf.
“They certainly didn’t. It seems the various dronon races had as much interest in leaving.”