The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 76,77,78 (Patreon)

Chapter 76

Foreign Reagents

Theo could have brought anyone to the floating island of the elves. But he had selected Xol’sa for a few reasons. The first was that he was an excellent mage, and mages were great at restraining people with magical chains and all that. The second reason was his study of the shards. Xol’sa needed a better understanding of how they functioned if he was going to make a tether that dragged them through the void. Theo couldn’t tell if that was selfish on his part, or on the part of Xol’sa. But he understood why he would want to avoid a place like this.

Unpleasant memories and all that.

Theo and Xol’sa sailed through the void, finding themselves in the far void before long. The tiny dot appeared shortly after, soon becoming the image of a floating island set against the endless blackness of the void. The alchemist steered them to the one safe spot near the ziggurat, taking them in and lending them on the steps. Elves scattered from the area, rushing off into the forest or freezing near the treeline.

“That never gets old, does it?” Xol’sa asked with a sigh. “Why do they have to be so creepy?”

Both Theo and Xol’sa turned to look at the shard stored in the structure. These objects were meant to be glowing blue, hovering in the air and providing some unseen power source.

“Allow me some time to study the shard,” Xol’sa said. “I could use some more information for my notes.”

Theo nodded, finding his way to the steps of the structure. He sat down, sending his aura blanketing over the area. Some effect of the void-laden area dulled his magical senses. He leaned so heavily on Shadow’s power for that effect that he couldn’t tell if it was a matter of being out of range, or his own ineptitude. But he got some sense that there were magical objects around here. Small blips appeared in his mind, standing out against the endless background of black. He also felt those elves, festering with void energy that mingled with the planar energy he was used to feeling from Xol’sa.

“The more I study these shards, the less I know,” Xol’sa said, slapping the side of the dim crystal. “They’re massive lodestones, but their function is unknown to me. As is the mechanism they use to draw power.”

“Is that a problem?”

Xol’sa summoned mana to his hand. The shard reacted, glowing slightly as it sensed a source of mana nearby. “Only if you value your life. I’ll need to run experiments to see how the shards will react when we’re pulling them through the void.”

“I value my life. Take as much time as you need,” Theo said.

“That’s what I thought,” Xol’sa said with a smile. “Would you mind if I took some more readings before we got to work on finding the reagents?”

“Take your time. I’ll just sit here and make sure no elves sneak up on us.”

Xol’sa turned back to his work, leaving Theo to watch the approach. The elves mostly stuck to the area around the trees, standing motionless for the most part. An elf would move across the expanse between the forest and the steps, but retreated when the alchemist tossed some rocks at them. At least that was enough to keep them at bay. Their minds had been broken by the void, but he was happy to know there was enough of them left to heal everyone.

If the plan to reforge their souls didn’t work, Theo would petition the gods for help. He knew Hallow would vote for him, but was unsure about the others. Death would vote against it, but whatever. Kuzan was a jerk and everyone knew it. Shadow might vote in his favor, but it was impossible to know with that guy. Even when he was Zaul, he had a reputation for being insane. Even considering that reputation, his scholarly cult was one of the most prolific in the world. So that had to count for something. The others were unknown to him. They might vote either way.

“You know more than most about enchanting objects with magic,” Xol’sa said, breaking Theo out of his thoughts.

“Not as much as someone like Zarali, but yeah.”

“When an item you’ve enchanted runs out of mana, what normally happens?”

Theo had to think back. Perhaps it was just his form of warding—which might have been considered enchanting—but his stuff normally exploded. “Depends on the quality of the material. It usually crumbles or explodes, though.”

“That’s right. We’re talking about direct enchantments, by the way. Not enchantments that enhance the performance of something like Zarali does. No, these shards are something else entirely. Lodestones, like I said. But my theory is that they draw a type of dimensional energy that we’re not normally aware of.”

“If the energy can permeate between dimensions, why aren’t they powered here?” Theo asked.

“Perhaps you’ve paid more attention to my instruction than I thought.” Xol’sa turned, smiling at Theo. “I think this is the energy of the system itself. A kind of background energy. It wouldn’t paint the entire realm with the energy, right? It would select where to do so. The mortal realms and the heavens. Maybe.”

It was as good of a theory as any, but it didn’t help them get the shards out from the void island. “Where does this get us?”

“Oh. As long as we contain the energy of my tethers, there shouldn’t be a problem. I mean, have you tried to move these things without the tethers?” Xol’sa asked.

Without further prompting, Theo expanded his will around the shard. When he tugged, it wouldn’t move. The size of the shard was enough to give him pause, but it was more than the physical size of it. Instead, it had a conceptual size greater than anything he could think of. It wouldn’t move even if he had enough willpower to handle both the physical and metaphysical size. Only Xol’sa’s relocation tethers would work.

“Nope. This bad boy ain’t going nowhere.”

“Indeed.” Xol’sa pushed away from the shard. He nodded in contentment. “I think I have enough information to finish the tethers off. Now we can sort out your problem.”

“Right. They’re gathering… Why do they gather like that?” Theo asked.

“They may be drawn to the energy our souls emit. Or something…”

“Just have some restraining spell ready.” Theo started his way down the large stairs. He made note of the elves he could see, watching as they moved in his future sight.

Now it was only a matter of scouring the entire island for reagents. Vegetation grew normally, feeding off some imagined sun in the sky. Water flowed to feed those plants, emitting from a magically driven spring somewhere deep in that jungle. But the plants growing here were a confusing mix. Palms, oaks, conifers… There was logic near the ziggurat, holding mostly tropical plants, but that logic fell away the further one got from that area. Theo led the way through the tangle, stopping after pressing into a clearing.

“I recognize that,” Xol’sa said, gesturing forward. “Something-or-other stems. That’s a reagent.”

Theo relied on his cores to find the best way to cut the plant from the ground, hoisting the [Kalsen Stems]. “Common reagent,” he said, stuffing the item into his inventory. “How did you recognize it?”

“I’ve seen them sold in the northlands. I think they have healing properties.” A flash of excitement played across Xol’sa’s face. “Is it usable?”

Theo noded. “The system recognizes this as a reagent, so we can use it. There are no rules against harvesting stuff from the void, so we can take as much as we want.”

“Excellent. Well, if my sense for reagents is better than yours we better get going.” Xol’sa slapped Theo on the back, laughing to himself.

“Just let me do the harvesting. No need to invite weird interactions thanks to the void energy…”

Searching the area was easy enough. Since Theo could see the future, he forestalled any attacks by the elves. As expected, Xol’sa’s spells were perfect to retrain without killing them. If the goal was to save the entire race of elves, there would be no point in purging the place. Each was weak enough that it wouldn’t cause them many problems.

Scattered around the wooded areas of the island were interesting reagents. Mushrooms, flowering plants, useful tubers, and mosses grew everywhere. With his Tero’gal Herbalist Core, he could feel that each was touched by a bit of the void. But instead of being corrupted by the void, they had taken that power in and used it to cultivate. A few hours of harvesting the wild reagents, and the alchemist had enough work to keep him busy for a while. Without testing the properties of the reagents, he couldn’t say if they were worth transplanting.

“I’m growing tired of restraining my people,” Xol’sa said. “Let’s leave.”

“Not to mention the void poisoning…”

“The what?”

“Nothing to worry about,” Theo said, wrapping his shadow and will around himself and Xol’sa. “I hope you got enough information to finish this project.”

Xol’sa stumbled as they fell into the void. “Yes, I hope so, too.”

There were a lot of reagents to go over, so Theo angled them back to the mortal world. It had already been a busy day. With the elf waking up, Theo’s mind was now focused on handling the elf problem exclusively. He was proud of himself for working so hard to learn how Tero’gal’s alchemy worked. Things always got busy like this, so he was glad to be in a position to handle it.

“There we are,” Theo said, landing them back in the tower back in Broken Tusk.

“I’ll get back to the devices. Won’t be long now!” Xol’sa said, scampering off to run his hands over the tethers. Theo wouldn’t pretend to know what he was looking out. Magical gizmos all seemed the same.

A quick check with Tresk revealed that she was almost at the lizard islands. Theo assumed everyone else was doing their thing, so he headed for the lab. Of the reagents he collected, he had little faith. But these things were worth checking, just in case some properties were useful for other things. Another source of Suffuse wouldn’t be unwelcome. Especially since he would rather use the Karatan Cheese to top his food, rather than tossing it into a still and boiling it up.

“First up,” Theo said, withdrawing one of the two samples of Kalsen Stems he had collected. “Delicious stems.”

With Salire nowhere to be found, he got to work on deconstructing the stems. He watched as the fibrous stems went up in smoke. After turning on the extractor fan, he waited for the smoke to clear before inspecting the resulting properties.

[Kalsen Stems]

[Alchemy Ingredient]

Common

The stem of a short-lived plant known for its healing properties.

Properties:

[Healing] [Regeneration] [Reveal] [Supple]

The properties were weird on the back half, but it fell in line with what he expected from something like the Spiny Swamp Thistle Root. It wouldn’t be worth cultivating this plant, since he could get the other properties with ease. If he used Supple more often, it might be worth it. But since others were willing to collect the Swamplight Spider Silk, he wouldn’t invest too much into this one.

Theo worked with another plant called Dongra Blooms. The flowers were blue and vibrant, but held almost no scent. Before even deconstructing the reagent, he could feel a strange mixture of mana and poison flowing through the flower. While he was concerned about what this flower would produce, he inspected it anyway.

[Dongra Blooms]

[Alchemy Ingredient]

Uncommon

A vibrant blue flower, notable for its beauty.

Properties:

[Poison] [Mana Recovery] [Devour] [Pitch]

“Pitch?” Theo asked, pushing the pile of ash along the table with his knife. “As in… to throw, or what?”

Shrugging, Theo moved on to the next reagent. He went through quite a few before he found the next interesting one. The one thing he observed was that the reagents didn’t hold as much void energy as he had expected. When they brought the space elf back, the void energy stored in his soul escaped, causing all kinds of problems with the dungeons. But the reagents had done something to absorb and process that magic, rendering it harmless. That didn’t mean the reagents he brought back were useful, though.

“Having trouble?” Salire asked, stifling a laugh as she entered the lab.

“Yeah, I don’t think any of these reagents are going to work for us.”

“Did you at least find something interesting?”

Theo shrugged. “Not interesting enough to dedicate the effort required to cultivate these things. I found a few variants to things we already have. And I like the idea that the stuff we have is local, rather than imported.”

“Except the Earth-based wheat,” Salire quipped.

“Well, that’s for food purposes. Doesn’t count.”

“Of course.”

“How about you? Have you found anything interesting?”

“Nope. Not in the few hours you’ve been gone. How did things go on the space elf island?”

“Very well. I mean, we found a bunch of reagents. But none were useful for the job. More importantly, it gave Xol’sa a chance to get some magical readings on the shards. I saw that look in his eye. He’ll be done with the gear in a few days.”

“Ah, I know the look you’re talking about,” Salire said with a wink. “That same look Throk gets, right? Slightly annoyed but a little smug?”

“That’s the one.”

“I’m guessing this job is more important for now. We’ll have to shelve some of the equipment we need to test.”

Hoping that something might happen with the various feelers he had put out wasn’t a great idea. But if all the locations he had access to didn’t have what he was looking for, they would need to do it the old-fashioned way. Waiting for the green moon and snatching as many Soul Blooms from the swamp as possible. But as a sense of smug confidence came washing in from Tresk, he knew something had moved on her end. It didn’t take long for her to send a gloating message through their telepathic link.

“Guess who just solved all your problems?” Tresk asked.

Theo then felt a lingering sense of… guilt? No, she was doing sneaky thief stuff.

“Did you just steal a bunch of flowers?” Theo asked.

“No. Maybe. Yes.”

Chapter 77

Fenian Needs More Potions

Waiting for Tresk to return from the lizard islands was more painful than sending her off. Theo should have known she would get up to no good. But as he stood on the streets of Broken Tusk, his eyes turned to the sky as he tracked her progress, he wondered if he would have asked her to do anything differently. Viewing her memories, he watched as she attempted to negotiate with the lizard people. The people of Saetalein Ya’ax weren’t open to negotiations. Without the influence of gods or ascendants, they had cultivated some powerful reagent farms. Farms they weren’t willing to share.

Sprawling greenhouses dotted the landscape of the lush islands. Including greenhouses that could mimic the phase of the moon. While Theo wasn’t aware of any upgrade that would help this happen, it was possible he could use mundane greenhouses infused with Tero’gal’s power to dedicate to the Soul Bloom. For now that didn’t matter. A marshling rode a dragon-goose, a bag filled with the necessary flowers tucked away in her local dimensional storage. She refused to allow him to see the ‘goods’ before she returned.

“I’m not trying to play politics here,” Salire said, rubbing her hands together nervously. “But isn’t this going to be a problem?”

“I imagine we’re looking at a massive problem, Salire. Our diplomatic relations with the lizard-folk is rocky to start. Tresk will kick off an incident with this.”

“Oh, that’s lovely. Because we need another incident.”

“I would’ve done the same thing, though. Time isn’t on our side.”

Theo sensed a disturbance in the air behind him. He narrowed his gaze, turning to sense a familiar energy radiating from the center of the road. A line appeared in the air, dragging itself from top to bottom until pooling shadows spilled out. A moment later, the gap widened. After a few breaths, a carriage drawn by demonically infused karatan burst forth. Hooves scraped against the cobbles, sending sparks into the air as Galflower did her best to bring the cart to a stop.

“I need some potions!” Fenian shouted from atop the carriage.

“He really just does the one thing,” Theo said, releasing a sigh. Tresk was still quite distant from the town. It would take her a while to get back. “What are you looking for, Fenian? Thought you swore off hunting everyone down.”

“Well, yes… But this will help our scheme!” Fenian shouted, jumping from the carriage. He landed with grace before Theo and Salire, a wide smile painting his face. “I’ll gather three allies for our plot. Powerful people who want nothing more than to see Kuzan dethroned.”

“Might not be the best idea to say that out loud.” Theo shook his head. The gods could hear what they were saying… he thought. It was hard to say after the latest seal went into place. After a moment, he sighed as dramatically as possible. “What do you need?”

“A decent list of things, actually,” Fenian said. “And I might destroy something important… Do you have a potion that can destroy metaphysical things?”

Theo produced a Dragon’s Breath Potion from his inventory, holding it out without looking Fenian in the eyes. It was the same potion he had planned to use on the elf during their duel. “Anything else?”

“A return potion, something with slowfall, Dexterity, health potions… Hmmm, do you have anything that makes a person fly? Oh, and something with future sight.”

“That’s all?” Salire asked, scoffing. “What are you doing, storming the palace in Tarantham.”

“Yes, how did you know?” Fenian asked.

“Seriously?” Theo asked. “How many times have you kicked that hive? Is there much left to kick?”

“Stop being such a bura in heat.”

“I don’t get the idiom.”

“Stubborn,” Fenian clarified. “Oh, fine. I know you’re going to accost me until I tell you my plan. I’ve been looking for someone—not my wife, I know where she is—for a long time. Thought he was in the queue, but I have some more information. Also, I know where Jan and Twist went and about when they’ll arrive.”

“Kuzan is holding this person?” Theo asked. Fenian’s plans had become transparent now that he wasn’t hiding the important details. “And you think Jan and Twist will join the cause?”

“Oh, yes. Once they learn what happened. Back in the old world, something very similar happened. A leader assumed the position of Death, betraying the trust of us all. They’re still as sore about it as I am.”

“Sure. Why the hell not?” Theo asked. “We’re not killing a bunch of people, are we?”

“Ah. I have a secret weapon,” Fenian said with a wink. “I’ve been saving it since I got here. Under the notice of anyone. Stealthy and all that.”

“Salire, could you fetch his junk?” Theo asked. “Bring a few bombs for good measure. You never know when you’re going to need to blow something up.”

“Really? That easy?” Fenian asked, confusion washed over his face. He withdrew a sack of gold coins from his inventory. “I was going to dangle this for a while. Listen to the sound of all those coins clattering.”

“I mean… Do you have anything I need? Greenhouse Seed Cores, high-level Monster Cores. Food?” Theo asked.

“We can work something out,” Fenian said, watching as Salire scampered off. “Seriously, Theo. This is going to be important. My last attack on Tarantham was in search of this man. But I remembered something he said back in the day.”

“What’s that?”

“He was the Guardian of the Shards back then. I was thinking about how much Kuzan enjoyed his irony. What better place to keep your enemy?”

Theo wasn’t so sure about that. He was at a point where he had conflicting information about where this guy was. Some people said he was in the queue, some thought he was on the mortal plane. Perhaps he was in both at the same time or some nonsense like that. But it hardly mattered. Fenian was like a dog with a bone. There was no reason to keep him from trying to do something like this. A nice jailbreak might help get his mind off of things.

Some people responded to stress by turning inward. People like Fenian reached out, trying to change their environment to remove that stress. If storming Tarantham made him feel better, then why not? There was nothing like an outlet to get rid of the jitters.

“Sounds like a solid plan,” Theo said.

“Really?” Fenian asked. “Oh, don’t you want to fight about it?”

“I don’t want to fight, no. I want you to keep busy. So, you can have these potions. But could you help with the food situation? Perhaps even with some ferrying duties?”

“After I check this off my list, I have little else going on.” Fenian shrugged, his vision going glossy as he thought. “Yes, I suppose we have an arrangement. Oh, excellent. The beautiful woman with my potions.”

Salire blushed slightly as she handed over the potions. She had gathered from Theo’s stock of dangerous potions, along with the useful ones.

“I hope these are okay,” Salire said.

“Those are fine,” Theo said. “Oh, can I call on you if I need help with the lizard-folk?”

“Why? What’s going on with the lizards?” Fenian asked.

“Tresk just stole some very rare reagents from them. I don’t think they have much of an army, but you know.”

“Oh, I know all too well. You’ll have a pile of gold or my sword when the time comes. Whichever the lizards prefer.”

For all Fenian’s flaws, this was the reason Theo had stuck with him for so long. Things could get messy, especially in a world that needed to be restarted. It wasn’t something he liked to consider, but force was sometimes the only way forward.

“Unless you need anything else, that should be it,” Theo said.

“Thank you, my dear alchemist. You’ve been the best investment I’ve ever made.”

Without giving an overly long farewell, Fenian turned away and mounted his carriage. He clicked his tongue, turning it around and heading back through the Bridge. Tresk was heading in hot, pushing Alex as quickly as she would go.

“That elf is dangerous, isn’t he?” Salire asked.

“I’m not sure ‘dangerous’ is the right word so much as catastrophic. He’s a messy thing caught between two worlds. When he generated his Throneworld, he made it look exactly like Iaredin before it had changed. I think he just wants his old home back.”

“That’s sad.”

Theo shrugged. He couldn’t remember a time where his world had stayed the same for too long. The constant change of his life had hardened him against such things. Until he arrived in Broken Tusk. Now he was doing everything he could to preserve what was here. Bringing everyone to Tero’gal was easy. Almost effortless. But taking the landmass and the buildings added a level of unneeded complexity. But he couldn’t do it any other way. Each stone set in the cobblestone road was more like an old friend than anything he remembered from Earth. He’d do anything to preserve it, and that seemed selfish.

“Nostalgia isn’t always sad. We put these things around ourselves to bring back a sense of how things were. Not because those things were there. But because those things remind us of a different time.”

“You’re getting too deep for me,” Salire said. “This is why you’re not allowed to sit still for too long.”

Theo nodded in agreement. She was right. But soon a dark shape appeared in the sky overhead. Had Tresk been feeding Alex more bones than normal? Her progress between dragon and goose had increased its pace. She was now more dragon than goose, although she kept most of the feathers there were large spots where he could only see scales. The horns on her head had elongated, twisting to appear like that of a ram’s. Her webbed feet were gone, replaced with clawed hands. The tail was nothing new, but it had gained a few sharp barbs on the end.

“More dragon than goose,” Theo said, watching as Alex landed on all four of her limbs. She swiped her tail from side-to-side, puffing out a breath of fire.

“We robbed them!” Alex shouted into his mind. “Robbed them blind!”

“We tried to negotiate,” Tresk said, withdrawing the bag from her dimensional space. Theo checked the contents quickly before placing it in his inventory. Without the power of the green moon they would fade quickly. “But those guys are weird.”

“Did they see you stealing the blooms?” Theo asked. “Should I reposition some guns?”

“Did they see me?” Tresk said, laughing. “Come on. Do you know who you’re talking to?”

Theo didn’t respond. He just glared at her for a while until she broke.

“Okay, one guy might have seen me. But he looked like he was near-sighted. And I’m super fast.”

Theo nodded, opening his administration interface. He put a note for Zan’kir to reposition some guns to the bay’s approach. After that he re-tasked the tiny navy to patrol further south, along the coastline. It would give them all sometime to do, and it cost them nothing to prepare.

“Anything else of note happen?”

“Not really,” Tresk said with a shrug. “I told them about the end of the world and they claimed to already know. While I doubt they’ll accept my invitation, I asked if they wanted to join the party.”

“Was that before or after you stole their stuff?”

“Before,” Tresk said with an eager nod. “You always gotta ask nicely before you do crimes.”

“Salire, we should process these immediately,” Theo said, ignoring the eager lizard. “How much space do we have?”

“Enough if you want to do a full run. We have stock of the Suffuse Potion and Burning Regeneration, so that’ll save some time.”

Theo clasped a hand on Salire’s shoulder. “That’s some incredibly forward-thinking.”

More blush spread across her cheeks. “Thanks.”

“Theo and Salire, sitting in a tree…” Tresk sang, dancing around. “How does the rest go?”

“I’m not telling you,” Theo said, locking the rhyme away in his mind. “A man can give his apprentice a compliment without it turning romantic, Tresk.”

“Yes. You’re married to me, anyway.”

Theo tapped his chin, his tail whipping through the air. “Hmmm. That’s more like getting married to yourself. Or rather, combining yourself with another person and marrying the result.”

“Either option is weird,” Tresk shrugged.

“Do you have any romantic inclinations?” Salire asked.

Theo grabbed for the locket at his neck, finding only the old amulet given to him long ago.

“He thinks he’s still married to his dead wife.”

“Tresk!” Salire shouted, looking aghast. “You can’t say stuff like that.”

“What? Just because he won’t say it doesn’t mean I won’t. He had trouble dating back on Earth as it was. Hard to find someone you like when the world is falling apart. Then he ‘retired’ and met this lady. What was her name?”

“I’m not telling you,” Theo said, folding his arms.

“Anyway, he swore it off after that. Said he’d be married forever, so he didn’t have to worry about it.” Tresk let out a sigh. “What a tragic story.”

“Not really,” Theo said. “That’s just the way things worked on Earth. I was lucky to have anything, seeing as our population had dipped to dangerous levels by the end. Anyone who made it to the sun exploding was lucky in my book.”

“Yeah, but we ain’t gonna let that happen here, right?” Tresk asked, making a fist and pumping it. “Lemme get a ‘hell yeah!’”

“Hell yeah!” Salire shouted impulsively.

“Hell yeah,” Theo said with far less enthusiasm.

“That’s right. We’re cool. Everyone standing here is cool. Even Alex.”

Alex honked, releasing a small stream of fire. Fire made most things cooler.

Chapter 78

An Encounter in Tarantham

Tarantham was an empire built to endure. It had been designed that way from the start. The walls of the cities were laced with crystal lodestones, emitting fields of suppression that aided the citizens. The cycles of calculated war maintained a population of the strongest—according to the recently ascended emperor. Built in accordance with the styles of the ancient Pera’tal kingdom, Tarantham City was a sprawling cross between a metropolis and a fortress. The city was organized into quarters, massive walls between each section and more guards than a person could count manning the walls.

“Even without our leader, we’re strong,” Fenian said, sighing as he passed through another checkpoint. His gaze shifted upward, making him feel slightly dizzy as he viewed the height of those walls. But thanks to the suppression field around him, his absurd attributes didn’t mess with his thoughts too much.

“Plate,” an elven guard asked, holding out his hand.

Fenian reached into his coat, withdrawing the hand-sized metal plate infused with his magical fake identity. The illusion he was under was powerful enough to fool almost anything. He had taken a hint from Theo’s approach before he had been transported to this world. Sneak mode was well and truly activated.

“Behave yourself,” the guard said, handing the plate back to Fenian. He bowed his head, making his way into the central district of the city.

They just had to go and model the city after the real deal. The central district of the city held the palace, a temple, and buildings reserved for embassies. Of course, none of those diplomatic buildings were occupied. This section of the city was home to far too many guards. The worst part was, they were the highly trained ones with decent cores. Fenian slipped through the crowds, pressing forward on a path angled to the palace. They stopped him at the entrance, checking his papers and buying his story yet again.

As Fenian passed through the antechamber, slipping off into a side hall, he smiled to himself. The damage he had done on his last visit was still there. Fortunately, few knew of the secret Kuzan held in the dungeons below. Elves loved their secret entrances, and that man was no different. After at least one-hundred twists and turns, he found himself in a darkened series of halls. The lower he went, the deeper that darkness seemed to stretch.

Fenian paused at a corner, pressing himself against the cold stone and holding his breath.

“Just smash it,” a familiar voice said. “You’re good at that, at least.”

“I’m working on it,” a rumbling voice responded.

Fenian tried not to laugh. He tried very, very hard not to break out in a cackle. While he had gotten very good at predicting people’s movements, he never thought he would come upon the two idiots in a place like this. He turned the corner, hands on his hips as he waited for them to notice him. They might have used their trump cards, but he still held his firmly to his chest. There was no way they would win in a fight, and he doubted they wanted it.

“Here for the same thing, gentlemen?” Fenian asked, dropping his illusion. He felt his rapiers close at hand. Hungry little things.

Jan and Twist dragged their gazes—the masked elf’s gaze containing only the singular eye under the mask—and locked onto Fenian.

“Are we fighting down here?” Jan rumbled.

“Doubt it. The old goat is here to gloat,” Twist said. “You owe me for not outing you in front of your pet.”

“Theo is a very good friend,” Fenian said, sauntering over to the pair. He clapped one hand on either man’s shoulder. “So, what happened? You came to kill the shade and settled for letting some prisoners out?”

“That was the plan,” Jan said, glaring down at Twist. “This one promised he knew how to pop the lock.”

“I do! I just need more time. Elven magic is weird,” Twist responded, stooping and looking at the magical lock once again.

Fenian watched with amusement as the masked elf tried to work the lock. Blowing the wall up would be easier, but that might draw attention. Even if they were quite deep under the city. He saw the mistake Twist made with the lock, but let the man stumble through it.

“How are things elsewhere?” Jan asked. “End of the world still coming?”

“Yes, do you need a ride to the party?”

“Back in Broken Tusk? Once we get Elrin out of here I’m game to go wherever. Can’t touch Kuzan, so we took out a few choice people along the way.”

“I gave him the list of targets,” Twist said, tilting his head as he tried to undo the magical lock. “People who really deserved it.”

“He’ll have his pet with him, you know,” Fenian said. “How did you hear about the prisoners, anyway?”

“Some light torture,” Jan said. “Nothing too bad.”

“Yes, we can talk about our crimes later, you oaf,” Twist spat. “I’ve almost got this.”

“No, you don’t,” Fenian said. He pushed the masked elf out of the way, then passed his hand over the magical lock. It popped open instantly.

“I could’ve done that,” Twist said, standing and awkwardly shuffled his feet. “Just a few more minutes and I would’ve had it.”

“Sure, buddy,” Jan said, clapping him on the back. “We all believed in you.”

Fenian stuck his head into the darkened room. It was a massive chamber with a pale blue glow coming from the far end. “Did you take care of the necromancer?” he asked, looking around the room with interest.

“Kinda,” Jan said, producing a jagged length of metal from his coat. “He was ravaging the eastern coast when we arrived.”

Fenian clapped with excitement. “We’re just putting a button on everything, aren’t we? Daddy isn’t home, so there’s no rules!”

“Who is ‘daddy’ in this scenario, or do I not want to know?” Jan asked.

“Kuzan, Karasan, and all the ascendants are ‘daddy’ in this situation,” Fenian said, stepping into the chamber. “Ah, as expected. We’ll need a few potions after all.”

Despite the expectations of Twist and Jan, there weren’t many prisoners here. Well, there were just two prisoners on the far end of the room, both encased in a crystalline material. This was mostly new information to Fenian, based on the loose tongues created by Kuzan’s absence. He thought everyone else from before the change had been kept within the queue. But of course the emperor had found and imprisoned the one person he hated the most, gumming up the works of the world.

“He’ll fix it, right?” Twist asked. “I always hated him, but he fixed the shards before.”

“I also hated him,” Jan put in.

“Yes, we all hated him. Screw him and all that. We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t kill us all, but I have a secret confession to make to everyone.” Fenian clicked his tongue. “I don’t know if my sweet alchemist can bring the shards back alone.”

The trio approached the crystal, getting a decent look at the shape of the man in one, and that of a beast in the other.

“Why didn’t Kuzan disarm him?” Twist asked. “He should’ve been disarmed.”

“Try disarming the tiger,” Jan said, nodding toward the second crystal. “A teleporting tiger… Wait, can we change the plan? I’d like to be on another continent.”

“Too late,” Fenian said, withdrawing the Dragon’s Breath Potion. He drank it, unsurprised when a bar of solid fire sprouted from his mouth. He only had to hold it long enough to crack Elrin’s crystal. Holding the intense fire on the crystal, he watched as a small crack formed. Shortly after, the potent potion faded

The crack formed along the center of the crystal, tracing from the top to the bottom. A tense mood settled over the room and the crystal audibly cracked before splitting. Chunks fell away until each member of the party could see the form of the man. He wore a black hooded cloak, his finely crafted armor made of dark leather interwoven with mythril chain. The halberd gripped tightly in his hand pulsed with magical power as he sagged forward.

“Ivaran,” Elrin said, sucking in a steady breath. He pressed the whistle hanging by a leather string around his neck to his lips. With a single sharp burst, the form of the tiger in the other crystal faded. Something appeared above his shoulder for only a moment before vanishing in a puff of arcane energy. “Jan, Twist. Who dies first?”

“Now, you need to measure your response, Elrin,” Fenian said. “I’ve only ever acted in the best interest of the world. It might have taken me longer than expected, but we’ve reached an idealized version of the plan.”

Fenian’s rapiers were in his hands before the others could even register Elrin’s movements. The force of the block sent a shockwave of power cracking the stones above and below.

“You got stronger,” Elrin said. “Where are the others?”

“They’re safe, but you have to trust me,” Fenian said, preparing to accept the system message that he had ignored for all these years.

Elrin searched the room, his long black hair running across his face. He recognized something the way he always did. “Where is Tinesa?”

Fenian swallowed hard. Of course he remembered her real name. Time hadn’t moved for him. “Dead. I already got the guy that did it, though.”

Elrin pulled his halberd back, poising it for a stab forward. “The others?”

“They’re trapped in a dimensional space. Kuzan has ascended to Leon’s throne. We have a stupid plan, but we need your help. There’s going to be another change. You missed the second one, by the way.”

Elrin’s gaze dragged across the room, landing on Twist. “Do we need him?”

“We need me very much… a lot,” Twist stammered. “Gods, why are you so strong?”

Elrin straightened up, his head swiveling. “Found what I was looking for.”

“Wait! We need you to bring the shards back. Don’t vanish. I hate when you vanish.”

The once-guardian seemed to pick up on the plan in an instant. In another life, he was the person in charge of guarding every shard. Perhaps he still held some deep connection with them, even through the void.

“There’s one still here,” Elrin said.

“At least take this,” Fenian said, holding out a communication crystal. He tossed it over.

“Sure,” Elrin said, vanishing after catching the crystal.

The party stood in complete silence for several tense moments.

“How is he still stronger than me?” Fenian asked, looking over to Twist and Jan. “He attacked to gauge my strength. We used to have our little fights, but he seemed deranged.”

“Oh, well good thing we released him,” Twist said. “We’re all very smart people here. Intelligent individuals that released some horror on the world. What’s he going to do when he learns we failed to defend Earth? What if Meya isn’t in the queue as you promised?”

“She’ll be in the queue just like I was,” Jan said. “Maybe we should talk to that alchemist about this.”

“I have enough people pissed off at me for no reason,” Fenian said, waving the suggestion away. “How did you guys even get in here?”

“Secret passage,” Jan said with a shrug.

“Fine. Take us to that secret passage. We set it in motion. He can deal with the rest.”

The web of magic that protected the world was damaged. Almost beyond repair. The network of Great Shards that had once helped the system regulate how things worked was shattered, giving way to a faux communication used by the current system. Elrin stepped out of one of two remaining shards on the planet, smiling to himself as the old jungles of Yoh’til greeted him. He had already put much of what had happened together, and he wasn’t happy.

Trevor, in his eagle form, took to the sky to scout. Both doubted the Tapu people were still here. Too much had changed.

“Where are your fragments?” Elrin said, watching as a small group of plant monsters shuffled past.

“Locked in the void,” a soft voice chimed from the shard behind him.

“I don’t remember a shard being on the islands. You’ve been through a lot, huh?” Elrin let out a sigh. He was doing his best to let his hate melt away, but it was hard. A system message had appeared, inviting him to convert to a different system. He wouldn’t take it. There was something strange about the magic in the air.

“As have you,” the shard responded. “But there is a man working to get us back in place. He’ll need your help.”

Elrin grunted a response, looking up at the lush canopy above. “Where is he?”

“To the east. The old kingdom there is long gone. You’ll mostly find ash, and a small duchy to the south.”

Elrin sent a mental command to his eagle companion, urging him forward. At least all his old abilities worked, along with the necklace he could use to swap his companion’s form out.

“There’s too much work to be done. How long did Kuzan have me trapped?”

“Nothing major. About fifty-thousand years.”

“Nothing major, huh?” Elrin asked with a sigh. “You always had the worst sense of humor.”

“Admit it. You love me,” the shard said.

Elrin shook his head, setting off into the jungle. “Just as smarmy as ever.”