The Newt and Demon - Book 7 Chapters 70,71,72 (Patreon)

Chapter 70

Thomas

Theo was immediately unsure of what to think about Thomas. It was his first true exposure to someone from Bantein, and he hoped not all of them were like this. Still, he was the son of the leader of that nation, and it could be far worse. While the alchemist wasn’t sure where to start, he simply walked the man through the city. The entire time his guest was silent, just taking in the sights. Until he saw the arena.

“What a marvel,” Thomas said, standing with his hands on his hips as he looked over the arena. “You don’t have a list of the events yet, do you?”

“We’re still working on it,” Theo said. “The arena was just completed, and we weren’t expecting guests so early.”

“You’d be surprised how quickly news travels,” Thomas said, his face darkening slightly. “To see a young nation seize the world’s attention is concerning. I’m sure you understand.”

“Not that we asked to be the ones to fix the planet,” Theo said with a shrug. “Many of the system’s aspects were suppressed. When we let them go, it kicked off the reset.”

“So, you’re more involved in this ‘reset’ process than I thought,” Thomas said, stroking his chin. “Are you limiting the amount of people you bring over?”

Theo tried not to react negatively, but it was hard. It seemed almost as though Thomas was more interested in the changeover than in participating in the events. However, he calmed himself down. The entire world was being reset, and that was not something people would take lightly. He had to consider the fear they must have felt receiving information secondhand. When somebody said the world was ending, everyone would assume the worst. Until they learned that the reset meant they were just going to new planets, there would be quite a lot of fear and anxiety throughout the world.

“Maybe it's better if we spread accurate information,” Theo said with a sigh. “I feel as though the knowledge you've gained secondhand doesn't quite describe what's really happening. Should I summarize it for you briefly?”

"By all means," Thomas said, spreading his arms wide.

Theo spread his aura wide, encapsulating both himself and the dignitary. He then interjected, bringing them into the void. Thomas was silent for only a moment before he screamed. It was a satisfying sound that brought some comfort to the alchemist's heart. He brought them just above the mortal plane, affording them a view of the many dots lingering in the emptiness. He gestured back toward that blue marble from where they came.

“That is the mortal plane, the place the locals have dubbed Iaredin. We consider that to be the lower plane, and if you turn this way, you'll see the middle planes, which currently consist of three planets and a moon. If you look well beyond that, you can see the high planes or the heavenly realms. Right now, we have access to the lower and middle planes freely. There are no restrictions on mortal souls from traveling, although spending time in the middle worlds or the void can have… effects on your body.”

Thomas seemed to have accepted the information for a few minutes. But as the silence stretched out, he opened his mouth to scream again.

“Did you get it all out of your system?” Theo asked, angling them toward Tero’gal. “You were very interested in this a few moments ago.”

Yet Thomas remained silent. Theo thought he gained a better measure of the man’s character after that, understanding the relationship he had with his father. He saw some of Hanan in there, and wouldn’t fault the man for being so hasty with his demands. Things were weird, and they would only get weirder.

“This is my world,” Theo said, bringing them to the welcome area on Tero’gal. “A small town called Boar Hollow.”

Thomas stammered for a few moments, his face contorted in concern and confusion. Eventually, he got some words out. “This is a world?”

“An entire world. And there are more,” Theo said. “When the system recognized the flaws in its creation, it compensated. These new worlds already house souls that were lost in the void. Those souls were meant to go to Death’s Realm.”

“Death?” Thomas said, clearly crapping his pants by now. It was one thing to hear about the world resetting, and another to experience the truth of it.

“We have true gods now. I’m certain you noticed how your cores changed,” Theo said.

“Right,” Thomas said, seeming to fix his composure slightly. “The names on some changed, and a good amount of our people lost their alignments.”

“And the gods stopped answering your prayers or talking to you. Because they were pretender gods,” Theo said. “What we have now are true gods. They sit in the higher realms, writing the rules for us down here. But there is a check on them. The Thrones of Power. The throne I hold allows me free travel through the void. While the Arbiter can also do the same, he doesn’t leave his world often.”

“Amazing,” Thomas said. “And frightening.”

Theo shrugged. “You get used to it.”

“Everything good, Theo?” Belgar asked, jogging over.

“Thomas, this is Belgar. He was a lost soul. As you can see, he now has a completed body,” Theo said, gesturing to the trotting dronon. “Belgar, this is Thomas. He’s the son of the leader of Bantein.”

“A pleasure,” Belgar said, bowing slightly. “Make sure he doesn’t stick around for long. At best he’ll get sick. At worst? Well, we haven’t tested that yet, have we?”

“No, we haven’t,” Theo said. “Have we?”

“Seems some other mortals have found the Bridge. Uz’Xulven let them over as a joke,” Belgar said. “Or she let them through because she doesn’t have the authority to stop them. I don’t know.”

“What happened?” Theo asked.

“They lingered in Tero’gal for a day, but had to leave,” Belgar said. “They started throwing up everywhere. It was a real mess.”

Theo nodded as though that was a normal thing. “At least they got out, right? Anyway, this is just a taste for you to see. Hopefully it helps you understand the way things are going to work.”

“I’m frightening beyond imagination,” Thomas said. “Belgar, you’re a… person? A fully realized, sapient person?”

“Last I checked,” Belgar said with a shrug.

“And there are more like him?”

“There might be more than the population of Iaredin, if I’m honest,” Theo said. “But I don’t know how many people live on the lower plane. Anyway, ready to go?”

“Why? I want to see the other worlds,” Thomas said.

Theo’s reason for bringing the man here was to give him a little fright. Now he wanted to tour the other worlds? Well, why not? Theo wasn’t interested in spending time with the man back on Iaredin, and it would be fun to check out the other worlds. He expected some migration to those places, so he wanted to check up on those populations.

“Okay. Let’s go,” Theo said, wrapping them in his aura again. “Nice seeing you, Belgar.”

“Have fun,” Belgar said, waving and smiling to himself. “Try not to get sick, Thomas.”

The man didn’t have time to respond. Although Theo was interested in showing him around, his desire to check population numbers on the various worlds caught more of his attention. A moment later, they were standing on the swampy surface of Tero’gal’s moon. They arrived in a swamp town that looked much like Broken Tusk had when the alchemist had first arrived. Buildings were constructed on stilts, keeping them above the level of the muddy water. A few marshlings ran over raised walkways, joined by dronon.

Toru’aun made herself known in time, coming out of one building and shaking her head. “Giving mortals tours, now?”

Theo shrugged. “We’re just having a bit of fun,” he said. “How are things?”

She shrugged, crossing the distance between them and placing a hand on Theo’s forearm. “We’re doing well enough. This world might be chaotic, but I’m getting used to it. Anyway, I see you’ve brought Thomas the Whelp along.”

Thomas dabbed the sides of his mouth, his face pale. He was no doubt feeling sick from traveling through the void. “A pleasure, I’m sure… Do I know you?”

“No, but I’ve heard of you through my ex-followers,” Toru’aun said. “You’re said to be shrewd.”

“But of course. Is this one of those wayward spirits you were talking about?” Thomas asked.

“No, that’s Toru’aun, Queen of Mystery.”

Thomas blinked heavily. “Oh. A demon god.”

“No longer a god, if ever I was one,” Toru’aun said. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind leaving me alone, that would make me very happy.”

“Right. Just checking out the population,” Theo said with a wave. “Have a good one.”

Toru’aun only nodded, waving the pair away as she went back into her home. Theo had to wonder what she did all day, but it was her business so whatever.

“We can leave now, can’t we?” Thomas asked.

Theo pressed forward without answering, checking the town out. Although it was simple, it was pretty nice. The homes were all well-lived in and the locals were friendly. They were mostly living off the land, hunting in the swap or fishing in nearby ponds, lakes, and rivers. Compared to Tero’gal, the population here was very low. Although the alchemist couldn’t determine an exact number, he could feel a general sense from Tresk’s connection to this place.

“Good enough,” Theo said, extending his aura and pulling them both into the void. Thomas vomited this time, but the trip didn’t last long. It felt like a blink before they were standing on Fenian’s planet, a place he had named Erradon.

“Could you stop for one moment!?” Thomas shouted, wiping the corners of his mouth.

Theo looked back with a shrug. He had deposited them somewhere on an open plane, outside the largest city on Fenian’s home continent. The white marble walls sprawled far into the distance, seeming to stretch forever. Rising from within the walls was a spire that rose high, almost seeming to stab in defiance of the gods. Thomas complained the whole way toward those walls, but when the alchemist picked up something from the wind, a flash of a confusing emotion rushed through his body.

“I guess we have some locals?” Theo said, clicking his tongue. “Or the city is on fire.”

“I’ll burn it down here in a moment if we don’t leave,” Thomas said, shambling behind.

“Let me know when you’re done complaining and when you actually wanna leave. This is what Iaredin looked like a long time ago. As best as can be remembered, anyway.”

“Really?” Thomas asked, looking up. “That’s interesting, I suppose.”

Theo pressed forward, walking along a cobblestone road and taking note of everything he saw. Off to the right were orchards thick with both trees and fruit. He couldn’t spot any monsters or feel anything that put his mind in a state of unrest. Instead, he only felt the latent magic in the air that prickled against his skin. The world was working on itself, but it had a while to  before completion.

Coming alongside another small group heading into the city, Theo grilled them. The city was called Vesta, which the people living here had gleaned from writing within the city itself. Once they were inside the walls, the pair explored to find something completely expected. Wayward spirits, as Thomas had put it, had settled down within the city. They were scattered throughout the area, taking up residence in random buildings and otherwise taking to the street like urchins. But there seemed to be little to no strife between the people living here. Instead, it presented as a much more peaceful place than Theo had expected.

“The spire has to be the palace, right?”

“How should I know?” Thomas shot back.

Chapter 71

Eleanor

It was more of a distraction than anything for Theo to check the old city out. As he had seen during Fenian’s tour, there was damage around the exterior walls that seemed to drag to the interior. Whatever had broken through had truly done a number on the place, and the elf wanted to remember that. The alchemist shivered at the thought as he moved with a small group of others, pressing forward into the mostly empty city.

“I’m unsure what you’re trying to show me,” Thomas said. “Am I meant to learn a lesson?”

Theo waved the question off. He was certain Thomas understood his message by this point, and didn’t need to press it further. Now he was making his way into the city as a curiosity. A natural migration into Erradon was interesting, and he couldn’t stop thinking about how and why people would make the journey. As all the worlds were now fully realized, a person could survive here without intervention. Assuming they were born or reborn in the middle plane, that is.

A mortal like Thomas wouldn’t last long.

Theo glanced back, setting a mental time for an hour. He doubted the man could last much longer than that.

“I’ve already shown you what I wanted to show you,” Theo said. “This is for me. Migration between the worlds isn’t explicitly allowed, but it seems some travelers have taken it upon themselves to come anyway.”

“You don’t seem to suffer from such travel restrictions,” Thomas said, his face going greener by the moment.

“No, that’s true,” Theo said, looking around to spot everyone in the various crowds. There were far more than he had anticipated, and the numbers were growing as they went deeper into the city. “But the Bridge is a sealed system. I didn’t think Uz’Xulven would allow anyone over it. Yet I’m not compelled to tell her to stop…”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Thomas said, taking a deep breath as though to steady himself. “I can handle it.”

The city itself was an interesting design. On the surface, one would assume it was a semicircular city where the interior tiers ascended toward the north. After chatting with a few groups that had made this place their home, Theo learned there was an entire area under the city. It was a place they assumed had once been the docks, granting passage to a sea to the south. In terms of modern-day Tarantham, this was the center of the crescent-shaped continent.

Eventually, the pair came to the spire, and Theo’s mental timer had just about expired. And so had Thomas.

“Would you look at that,” Thomas said, holding up a finger and turning to vomit. He gurgled. “Marvelous.”

“Yeah, I guess we should get you back to the mortal world,” Theo said, running his fingers through his hair as he gazed upward. “I would’ve enjoyed seeing the top of that thing, though.”

“Another day, perhaps,” Thomas said, somehow still holding his composure.

Theo enveloped both of them in his aura, dragging the sickly man into the void. A moment later they were angling for Iaredin, streaking through the barrier between it and the void and appearing near the harbor in Broken Tusk.

Thomas sucked in a breath, then a few more before his breathing evened out. “While that was quite interesting, I’d like to never return.”

“It really isn’t meant for mortal bodies,” Theo said. “Although I really don’t know why. Something about incompatible magic or something. We’re honestly uncertain what the mechanism is regarding heavenly bodies.”

“Absolutely fascinating,” Thomas said, stumbling to one side and catching himself against a wall. “I’m truly horrified, yet I feel enlightened.”

Theo turned, regarding the man with a cocked eyebrow. What exactly was his plan in taking Thomas to the other realms? The expression on the man’s face was indeed one of enlightenment. Maybe this was a good idea. Pulling the important people of the world aside and showing them what would happen before it happened. They could spread information faster than anyone else, right?

“I thank you for the trip,” Thomas said.

Theo watched as the man’s complexion got better by the moment. The color on his face returned and his shoulders were thrust back. After adjusting his hat, he looked dignified once again.

“You’re tough, aren’t you?” Theo asked, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

“I try my best,” Thomas said. “I assume you’re not participating in the combat games, are you?”

“I don’t think so,” Theo said. “Doesn’t seem fair.”

“Excellent. I look forward to displaying my prowess, and find myself regretting I won’t see yours…”

“We may have special exhibitions,” Theo said.

Thomas made pleasant conversation after that. He didn’t take his kidnapping to the other realms as an offense, instead viewing it as an honor to peek behind the curtain. More than anything, Theo was happy to hear Thomas would spread the information to his people in Bantein. Fortunately, there weren’t any other people who needed random tours today, and it was time to check on the apprentice’s apprentice.

Once free from the representative of Bantein, Theo headed for his lab. Most of the day had burned away, resulting in the coming of mid-afternoon. The alchemist snuck into the shop, silencing the bell and shushing the half-ogre working the front counter. He made his way up the stairs as silently as he could, pressing his ear against the door to his lab. The scents wafting from within were pleasant, revealing the progress Eleanor had made in such a short time.

There was a lull in the conversation, which Theo took as an invitation. He opened the door, finding Salire and Eleanor working on the first step in the process of making potions. The fundamentals were important, after all.

“You’re making some excellent progress,” Theo said, nodding with approval. The woman didn’t look as nervous as she did last time.

“Once I got my confidence back…” Eleanor said, her voice low as she focused on measuring out reagents. “Things fell into place.”

“She’s a natural. Just like me,” Salire said, beaming with pride. “She’s not even using a skill to measure the materials.”

“That’s hard to believe,” Theo said, tilting his head to get a better look at the process. She measured everything expertly and by eye. “I think you found a winner, Salire.”

That was apparently too much for Eleanor, and her face flushed. “I’ll do my best,” she said.

“Maybe we truly need to think about expanding the lab,” Theo said, shaking his head as he looked over the cramped space. “I’ve got these high-level cores burning a hole in my pocket… Maybe enough to get 35.”

“What are the chances we get an expansion upgrade?” Salire asked.

“Pretty low,” Theo said, narrowing his eyes as he watched a rat scurry across the lab’s floor. A normal rat. Not an octo-rat, rat-dog, or some other combination of animals. Just a regular old rat. The alchemist’s sense for auras still wasn’t good, but this one was familiar. “I think we have a spy in the lab. Make some room.”

Both Salire and Eleanor looked with puzzled expressions on their faces. They both fell back when the rat changed. In a blink it turned from a rat to a man. Elrin specifically.

“I wouldn’t call it spying,” Elrin said. He was covered in a layer of grime and brushed his shoulders off as though that would help. “More like a checkpoint.”

“What’s up?” Theo asked.

“We need to move another shard into position,” Elrin said. “We have some imbalances. Unless we move a shard, my work will be reset.”

“What are we waiting for?” Theo asked with a shrug. “Off to the void island, I guess.”

Elrin nodded. “We’ll depart from outside. Trevor can’t fit inside.”

Theo nodded, saying farewell to Salire and Eleanor. They could upgrade the building later. The balance of the world seemed a bit more important. After heading outside, Elrin summoned his giant tiger. A moment later, they dipped into the void. The tiger yawned and stretched, kneading the bottom of the void bubble as they went. They wasted no time angling straight for the void island, landing softly near the ziggurats.

It didn’t take long for Theo to sense something strange about the landmass. He narrowed his eyes, scanning around in search of the disturbance. At first he thought he had missed some void elves, but the signature was different. Despite sending his senses as far as they would go, he couldn’t figure it out.

“You feel it too?” Elrin asked. “Could be an issue with so many dormant shards in one place.”

“It feels familiar, though,” Theo said.

Without a word, Elrin sent Trevor off to scout the area. While the tiger did his work, they found the correct shard and waited. Once it was active, they’d need to send it back to the mortal plane quickly, otherwise bad stuff would happen… According to Elrin, that was.

“He found something you will not like,” Elrin said, stalking off toward the jungle. “A dungeon, according to Trevor. He claims it isn’t right.”

Theo frowned as he followed closely behind Elrin, his brain working overtime to figure out some reason for a dungeon to appear here. He understood dungeons were manifestations of magical energy, given form as a release to the system’s need to compensate. Which meant the system was here, which was something the alchemist was unsure of.

Now that Theo knew what he was looking for, he could sense the dungeon in the distance. It felt similar to dungeons on the mortal plane, with a twist similar to all things in the void. Void corruption felt like a schism—a piece of something that shouldn’t exist. It split what should and shouldn’t be, creating a disjointed feeling that made him uncomfortable.

Theo spotted a massive glowing tiger before he saw the dungeon. Trevor stood at the edge of a clearing, growling at the archway denoting the dungeon’s entrance. The alchemist clicked his tongue, approaching and pressing his hand against the side. A shock of electricity spread through his chest and he shook his head. His Dreamwalker’s Core was close to declaring this thing against the rules of the system. But he felt as it refused that fact without more information.

“We got ourselves an illegal dungeon,” Theo said, wrapping the dungeon in his aura. It fought against him as his shadowy aura glanced over the surface. “It doesn’t want us probing deeper, but I can feel the structure. Feels like a normal dungeon you’d find on the mortal plane.”

Elrin grunted a response, poking a finger into the dungeon’s portal. “Standard message to enter. No surprises there. I can feel the dungeon’s core screaming from within.”

“Screaming?” Theo asked, blinking. “Why would it scream?”

“Fear.”

Theo watched as Elrin entered the dungeon, beckoning for him to join. The alchemist sat in confusion for quite a while, edging toward the entrance but finding himself hesitating. Even when Xol’sa talked about interacting with the dungeons he never talked about them that way. An emotional response from something like a dungeon seemed strange, but they could ascend… He pressed forward, feeling the familiar sensation of cold washing over his entire body as he entered. Then the sickening aura of a void-soaked dimensional space washed over him and his danger sense tingled.

Theo clicked his tongue, looking out over the dungeon’s landscape. “What am i looking at?” he asked.

Elrin folded his arms, frowning as he looked ahead. “I’ve seen one of these before,” he said. “When was the last time you checked on Death?”

“Recently enough,” Theo said.

Elrin’s frown deepened. “Perhaps we’ll pay him a visit when we’re done here.”

Theo shook his head, the ash beneath his feet remembering the impression of his boots. He gazed out onto the gray, floating islands, his mind almost unable to comprehend the landscape.

“Guess you’re the one leading,” Theo said, wincing as he set eyes on a gray spider-like monstrosity in the distance. “Hope this wasn’t a mistake.”

Chapter 72

Paper

Elrin led the way forward over the dead landscape. Theo watched, taking note of all the strange structures. It was as though someone had taken a real place and painted it in shades of gray atop ragged pieces of paper. The floor beneath their feet seemed thin, and the sections of vague buildings in the distance fell away and floated on the slight breeze like dislodged pieces of aged parchment. The monsters here were equally strange, although they had engaged none yet. Like the buildings, they were paper constructions, more shadows of real monsters than anything else.

“I never gave a name to these places,” Elrin said, ducking behind a paper wall and pressing his back against it. He edged forward as Trevor ranged ahead. “During the war, they appeared for me a few times. Filled with puzzles and corrupted monsters. I always thought they were the work of Kuzan. He had infiltrated the system to create chimeras. The first one I ever saw claimed to be a goblin dungeon. This looks oddly familiar to that.”

Theo followed closely behind, his danger sense tugging at his attention occasionally. This was the most chatty he had seen Elrin. Especially considering he was talking about the ‘before time’, a time notable for an endless war. That era was painful for all those people from the old version of Iaredin.

“Are these hard to clear?” Theo asked.

“At our level?” Elrin asked with a shrug. “No. They should be easy. As long as you remember we’re standing in a shadow world. A corrupted version of a real dungeon that could never exist. Strangely, this one had little information on the entrance message.”

Trevor surged forward, grabbing a giant spider-like paper monster by the leg and savaging it. A faint light glowed from within the creature, pulsing as though representing a heartbeat. The tiger went for that after tearing away layers of the paper, crunching it between his teeth like an ice cube. As the paper-like material fluttered to the ground, the alchemist grabbed a few pieces and stuffed them in his inventory.

“What?” Theo asked after getting a look from Elrin. “They’re alchemically reactive.”

“I never found a use back in my time,” Elrin said, moving between two structures once again. He continued once they were on the other side. “Then again, the system for ingredient collection was different.”

The strangest thing about the empty dungeon was that it was only stained with void energy, rather than soaked with it. Theo followed behind Elrin and the tiger. Trevor did all the work, shredding the weird monsters and crushing the cores in their chests. The alchemist paid attention, doing his best to understand how those cores worked. Monster Cores were the things that powered monsters. They were a combination of power sources and a set of instructions which drove monsters forward. The proto-souls of monsters were solid, caged things.

The cores of the paper monsters were a thin layer of glass-like material, barely containing the energy within. When they were defeated, they didn’t drop their cores.

Elrin only truly opened up when he was interested in a topic, acting bored to anything other than curious topics.

“Kuzan worked on many hybrids in his time,” Elrin said, standing back as Trevor stalked forward. They seemed to be working their way to a larger structure shaped like a ruined tower. “Hydras were his favored chimera. He mixed them with everything, eventually creating a chimera that was almost unbeatable. The Goddess of Light blessed me, which made it easy to defeat him… That only pushed him to make stronger chimeras.”

“Got any pieces of the hydra tucked away?” Theo asked, laughing as Trevor took another creature to the ground.

“None. The blood eventually burned, and the skin boiled when they died,” Elrin said. “Which is why Vesta had such a hard time. Not as hard of a time as Boston, though.”

“Funny that you’ve been to Earth,” Theo said. “From what I understand, your war happened 250 years before I was even born.”

“The system really messed up time for everyone, didn’t she?” Elrin asked, cracking a faint smile. “Things got so messed up near the end. I’m glad we’re doing something about it.”

The pair fell into silence for a while. Theo watched as Elrin solved a puzzle he clearly knew the answer to. Within the tower there was a larger version of the cores the alchemist had seen within the paper monsters. The purpose of the puzzle was to find the correct floating core, bringing over a monster with the same colored light. The monster would soak into the giant glass core. A moment later, light spilled onto the floor and Elrin stepped in.

“Everyone needs to be inside,” he said, jerking his head to the side. “Come on.”

Theo stepped into the portal, feeling the magic under his feet swirl around him. The teleportation effect wasn’t like a dimensional transit. It differed completely from any form he had experienced so far. Instead of dipping into another pocket dimension, he was simply moved from one place to another instantly. Then they were standing on another part of the many floating islands.

After transitioning to the next island, Theo learned there were many islands with the same puzzle. He followed behind Elrin and his tiger, learning more about the unique dungeon space. Solving a puzzle meant the previous island would be destroyed. That would open another path, sending them forward toward a central island. When the alchemist asked if they could simply fly over the gaps between islands, Elrin informed him it was impossible.

Good thing he knew what was going on.

Hours passed, but they eventually arrived on the central island. The shape of a massive tower loomed in the distance. The space between them and the tower was dotted with the monsters. Trevor was already picking a path, selecting which monsters to kill and which others to pull along forward. There must’ve been another puzzle to solve.

“Getting more reagents?” Elrin asked as Theo scooped down to pick up another piece of something.

“Yeah, I’m still not getting a system prompt, but I can feel the alchemical potential here,” Theo said. “Maybe we can find more dungeons like this.”

Elrin shrugged. “They’re mostly harmless if you know the trick. We always barred others from entry, though. The light puzzle is easy, but there are a few others that got our adventurers killed.”

“Such a weird place,” Theo said, gazing up at the massive tower before him. It looked as though it could collapse at any moment. The thin structure looked as though it couldn’t hold any weight. But it held firm.

“That’s where the boss is,” Elrin said. “Hope you’re ready for a fight.”

“Thought you were going to carry me through,” Theo said.

Elrin cracked a smile. “No. The one thing I know about these bosses is they adapt. I’ll get a few hits in before it changes, then you can do your alchemy thing.”

“My alchemy thing?” Theo asked. He didn’t know if he should be offended by that statement. “I’ve got spells, too.”

“Just be ready,” Elrin said, pressing forward.

Theo felt as though this was business as usual for Elrin. When he walked forward, he did so with focused determination. Before long they arrived at something like a gray gate, set into the thin walls of the tower. Two alcoves were waiting with different colored orbs. Of course, Trevor came along with the proper color monster a few moments later. The orbs sucked in the monsters, their cores flashing for only a moment before they were consumed.

The gate rumbled as though it actually had mass, grumbling upward as it fought against unseen rusted gears. Theo couldn’t see the mechanism that drove the gate upward, but he could hear it clearly. When the gate had finally lifted enough, he could see inside. The tower was hollow on the inside, the exterior wall being the only mass it had. Otherwise, an open circular area appeared, much like the arena the alchemist had created back on the mortal plane.

In the center of the arena was a large version of the spider-like paper monsters they had seen in other parts of the dungeon. It wandered, moving with weight that betrayed its appearance. Theo’s sense for danger tingled as he watched the monster move here and there, narrowing his eyes as he studied it. Elrin didn’t even wait to ensure the alchemist was ready. Instead, he charged forward, launching himself in the air with impossible speed. Trevor was there with him, darting across the open floor of the arena to snag one of the monster’s feet.

The sound of Elrin’s halberd rang through the arena as he assaulted the monster’s glittering core. Theo felt the ground rumble, a shockwave of force radiating outward. He shielded his eyes as flecks of paper peppered his face. As fierce as the first salvo was, it wasn’t enough to bring the creature down. It went from a docile thing to a beast on edge, coiling and striking out with many limbs. Elrin could barely fend off the rapid attacks, sent on the back foot by a flurry of bladed strikes.

“Am I supposed to do anything?” Theo asked, shaking his head. Elrin ducked to one side, narrowly avoiding a strike. That’s when the alchemist latched onto the sense of danger, holding on and pulling forth the time-slowing effect. Through some instinct drilled into him by Tresk, a dagger infused with Dragon’s Dance came forth from his inventory. He whipped it forward, expecting to turn the boss monster into pulped paper.

Blades of light appeared in the air, slicing sections of the monster away. But each strike only glanced against the monster’s shell, never penetrating deep enough to strike the core. But the attack was enough to send it off-balance. It reeled, giving Elrin enough of a chance to lash out with his halberd.

Theo found himself in an awkward role during the fight. His old Toru’aun enchantments were effective only at stunning the monster for a moment. Everything else he could think of—such as poison—didn’t affect the weird boss. He even tossed a few fireballs at it, assuming the creature would be weak to fire damage. But it wasn’t. The monsters here weren’t made of actual paper.

“The phase is close to changing,” Elrin shouted back, pulling slick blood from his eyes and narrowing his gaze at the boss. “Be ready.”

Theo almost shouted out in frustration, demanding to know what he should expect. But he could sense what Elrin would shoot back.

Anything.

Rearing up on too many limbs, the monster came down on Trevor with another attack. By the time Theo reacted, Elrin had already used an ability to recall his tiger, substituting it for another that looked like a lizard that ran on two legs. It zipped around the area, shooting an acidic material and making a high-pitched squeak the whole time. From his support position in the rear, Theo watched with a puzzled look, blinking away the haze as he tried to keep up with the lizard.

But Elrin was at the monster’s side, striking at sections weakened by the acid. Theo watched as he chipped away each layer, revealing more of the core. Each strike brought more of the glassy object to the surface. Cracks appeared in the side, spreading like a spider’s web across the core.

“Multiple monsters,” Elrin grunted, reeling back with his halberd and driving the tip forward. “I can feel the next phase.”

The wicked tip of the halberd connected with the surface of the core, splitting it in two. Releasing a mournful sound, the monster fell back with thundering steps. The insides glowed, radiating through the thin shell until the entire arena was bathed in a pale purple light. Then the monster was gone; vanished in an instant. But Elrin didn’t allow his posture to slacken, he stood with his weapon ready as he scanned the area.

Theo heard chittering footsteps coming from the arena’s edge, just through the gloom. His danger sense resolved into slow-motion vision before he even saw the creatures. Hundreds of them. Smaller versions of the larger monster stepped foot into the light, and there was only one thing that came to mind.