The Newt and Demon - Book 8 Chapters 19,20,21 (Patreon)

Chapter 19 A Good Smack As promised, Sarisa and Rowan were completely uninterested in joining them for the adventure the next day. Tresk and

Chapter 19

A Good Smack

As promised, Sarisa and Rowan were completely uninterested in joining them for the adventure the next day. Tresk and Theo stuffed their inventories with enough provision to last them many multiple years. Even if they didn’t need to eat while within the dimensional spaces, or at least not as much, they wanted to be prepared. Joining him on the trip this time was alchemy equipment. If he needed to brew potions this time, he had various stills and glassware to see him through.

“Should we tell anyone we’re going?” Tresk asked, slinging a backpack over her back and nearly tipping over backwards.

“Nah, it’ll be fine,” Theo said with a shrug. “We shouldn’t be gone that long, and if anybody needs to find us, they’ll ask Sarisa or Rowan.”

“Oh, yeah. Those two just went to another dimension for a bit. Just sit around and wait,” Tresk said, doing her best impression of Rowan. “Come on, let’s go.”

Theo and Tresk had decided to leave Alex behind. Not because they didn't think she could pull her weight, but because of her size. She had grown to a point where fitting into tight quarters was impossible, and entering an unknown situation meant they could appear anywhere. It was a paper world the last time, but Theo feared they would be sent into a series of tunnels in which she would certainly be a hindrance. The dragon-goose didn’t care either way, and got to scouting the Southlands Alliance the way she normally did.

Dropping into the void was the same as it always was, but what came after was anything but normal. Theo brought them just above the mortal plane and waited, spreading his senses and feeling for those invisible dimensions. It was harder than he had expected, but eventually, he latched onto something. “I think I feel one of the dimensions,” he said, not entirely sure of its flavor.

"What are we talking about here?" Tresk asked. "Volcano world? Another paper world? Maybe an islands-in-the-sky kind of world?"

No matter how much Theo could focus, he couldn't figure it out. He released his gaze from that world and dragged it across the void, eventually finding the paper world. There was nothing on the outside that indicated it was anything but another nondescript dot. He couldn't obtain any information beyond that and shrugged. “I've got absolutely nothing,” he said, centering his focus on the first one. “But once I find them, I have a decent idea of where they are, so I suppose this means we can catalog them.”

"Good enough for me. You want to take us in?" Tresk asked. 

Theo nodded, forcing his will into the action. This time, he intended to fold himself into the space, a feat that proved more challenging than expected. However, there was only so much the void could do against his absurd willpower. They were soon careening through what felt like a tunnel, only to emerge above an endless streak of blue. It was a stark contrast to the endless roll of black that represented the void. Just like the void, there were distant shimmers on something that appeared to be a horizon, small gems that distracted the alchemist long enough for him not to realize they were falling.

Only when Tresk shouted did he realize. What felt like a moment passed, and they were plunging into icy water, thrown amongst white-capped waves and the churn of some salty sea.

“What the hell!?” Tresk shouted, sputtering as she surfaced. “Why did you pick a water world!?”

"I didn't mean to pick an ocean world," Theo said, treading water as he looked around. "This one might be a bit too hard for us to survive in.”

“Nah, just use that Water Sorcerer’s Core,” Tresk said, a smile on her face as she doggy-paddled around. “This isn’t so bad.”

Theo fumbled with his cores, swapping one out for his water sorcerer's core before commanding the surrounding sea. He turned the ocean into a calm body of water and then directed it forward, pushing them along like a great surfboard on the open ocean. It was disorienting, and after about 20 minutes of intense effort, he gave up on finding anything that resembled land. Instead, he spread his senses downward, where he felt the seabed.

“New plan,” Theo said, slotting his Earth Sorcerer’s Core in another slot.

It was hard to tell how far down solid ground was, but Theo reached out with his willpower and brought the rocky bottom of the sea up to where he wanted it. He struggled with the displacement, but the alchemist refused to let it go. He pulled the land up and held the sea where it was. Eventually, black stones rose beneath their feet, pushing them above the surface of the ocean and affording them a moment's respite from the churning waters. He pulled more material up, giving them enough height and area to rest comfortably. That provided them with ample time to inspect their surroundings.

"Those aren't real stars, are they?" Tresk asked, looking upward.

Theo shook his head. He didn’t think they were real. Instead, they were representations of the night’s sky, perhaps relating to something he didn’t quite understand yet. The only thing the alchemist understood was the connection between this world and the paper world Kuzan had created. He had made the paper world as a place to make chimeric monsters to attack the mortal races back in the day. But what purpose could an ocean world serve?

“I doubt this is something Kuzan made,” Theo said, speaking above the sound of the waves rushing against his island.

“Yeah, I dunno. Think there’s anything useful here?” Tresk asked.

One thing Theo was certain of was the conceptual power of this place. Something about the way the ocean and seafloor were oriented made him think they were important. As the alchemist’s senses spread wider, he felt something alchemically useful. Although he couldn’t tell what it was from afar, he knew he could use it.

“Let me catch my breath,” Theo said, scanning the horizon. He had to squint against the darkness of night and had to wonder if there would ever be a day in this place. “The layout here is confusing. I can’t tell if this place is massive and tiny.”

Theo found himself staring at the horizon, trying to make sense of where the ocean stopped and the sky started. He was brought to his senses when Tresk slapped him on the butt.

“Hey! Didn’t you say the paper place made you go all looney?” Tresk asked.

“Ah, crap,” Theo said, surrounding them with his aura. His mind cleared the moment after he reinforced the barrier with every bit of willpower he had. Now that his thoughts weren’t wandering, he turned to his companion. “Are you immune to the effects of this place or something?”

“Maybe. I don’t know,” Tresk said with a shrug. “I just saw you spacing out and thought I’d give your tush a good smack.”

Theo looked back at the horizon, this time through the haze of his barrier. On the outside, he could feel the disconnecting effects of the area pressing in. Within his aura was a piece of Tero’gal, no matter how small. He brought his own flash of influence to this place, preventing the nameless world from draining him of sense.

“Thanks for that,” Theo said, finally feeling well enough to send a fragment of his aura out to scan. “There’s something on the seafloor that feels important. I can’t tell if I’m feeling a reagent or just an object.”

“Well, let’s get going! Hope you didn’t just wanna stop at one place today,” Tresk said. “I wanna see all the weird worlds! An ocean world is cool, sure… But come on. I wanted to see something weird.”

“There are plenty of dimensions to see,” Theo said. “Calm yourself. Besides, an ocean world is pretty cool. I’m excited about such a novel concept.”

“No, you’re just lame,” Tresk said. “Can you even find the other dimensions? Or are we stuck with this?”

“I’ll have a better sense for it when we get out,” Theo said.

Now came the monumental task of parting a planet’s worth of water to get to the ocean’s bottom. Using the same technique he had used before, Theo created a bubble of air around them as they descended to the ocean’s bottom. The pressure pressing in from every side wasn’t as bad as expected, and more of the familiar black stones made up the entire seafloor. It was a truly desolate environment.

“Not what I expected,” Tresk said, scanning the area outside the bubble. She squinted, shaking her head. Kicking the stones on the ground, she grumbled. “There’s nothing living down here, dude. Living stuff makes alchemy stuff… right?”

“Usually,” Theo said. “But not always. And we’re not looking for reagents exactly. I’m looking for an object of great conceptual magnitude. If you think about it, we’re using a super-powered version of shavings. The job of a catalyst is complex, but in this case I’m using it more like a binder.”

“So, a fancy rock maybe?” Tresk asked. “Perhaps a sponge?”

“Sponges are living,” Theo said, pressing forward.

Instead of debating more about what object would work for their purposes, the duo pressed on in their bubble of air. The surrounding ocean was impossibly dark, pressing in on them with none of the pressure Theo expected. Things were going well enough, until the alchemist sensed something strange pressing in on him. It wasn’t a physical pressure, but more of a spiritual pressure.

“Ya feel that?” Tresk asked, looking around with a look of concern on her face.

Theo stopped in his stride, time slowing to a crawl. He reached out with his willpower, gathering a circle of stone below them and forcing it down with everything he had. The duo dropped, going weightless for a moment as they fell into the fifty-foot circular hole, the lid of which was replaced when they hit the bottom.

“Ow! My knees,” Tresk said, bumping into the wall. “Ow! My face…”

The marshling withdrew a lantern from the shared inventory, illuminating the tight space. The ground beneath their feet rumbled as something passed by overhead. Theo felt it in his senses, brimming with curious energy. He piled more stone above them when the rumbling turned into impacts. Stone and dust fell from the ceiling, cascading on top of their heads.

“That’s a problem,” Theo said, digging them as deep as he could. He smashed forward with his willpower, creating a staircase that led them deep. “Did you get a look at it?”

“No! You dropped us too quickly,” Tresk said. “Theo, I really don’t like sea monsters.”

“I’m not a fan,” Theo said, sensing the path forward. Again, he was reminded of the weird makeup of this place. It was hard to tell if they were going deeper or wider. He grumbled as they moved along. “This place makes no sense. I’m not sure if ‘up’ and ‘down’ makes sense down here.”

“Sweet. Giant monster above, non-Euclidean space below! What in the name of cyclopean landscapes are we gonna do?”

Theo clicked his tongue, spreading his senses as far as they would go. He sent the path sprawling forward and down some more, taking a step. Then he stumbled forward, his mind spinning as ‘up’ became ‘down’. Cursing as he tumbled forward, the alchemist twisted and blinked away his confusion. Tresk came falling shortly after, having less trouble with the sudden shift in gravity.

“Drat! I think we found the other side of this planet’s gravity,” Tresk said, clicking her tongue.

“This is a tiny planet, then,” Theo said, punching forward to make more of a path. “We’re getting the hell out of here.”

“This is the part where I go ‘ruh-roh’,” Tresk said, narrowing her eyes.

The ground beneath their feet rumbled. Loose stones shifted, falling only to be caught in the air by Theo’s sorcery. Water rushed in through the cracks as boulders the size of houses were cast aside. The massive maw of something ancient and angry snapped, crushing between its jaws those same rocks.

Chapter 20

This Sucks A Lot

Swirling rock and water made for a disorienting environment. Theo felt rocks pelt him, his struggle to keep both water and rock away from him an impossible task. He felt Tresk nearby somewhere, but it was impossible to feel her intentions through the maelstrom. It was only the swirl, darkness, and the occasional sound that broke through long enough to pierce the black.

Then there was nothing. Until Theo felt the distinct sensation of someone rousing him from sleep. He woke to the feeling of something soft beneath his back and the sound of Tresk jabbering.

“It’s dimensions all the way down!” she shouted, shaking him hard enough to roll the alchemist down a small hill. “Wake up.”

Everything was blurry by the time Theo opened his eyes. Where he expected to see the inside of some beast or the bottom of a sea, he saw an open field. Green fields of grass stretched far into the distance, mountains looming on the horizon. A scatter of trees were close enough that he could hear the leaves rustling with the wind. The breeze that blew from somewhere distant felt cool.

“Okay. What just happened?” Theo asked, groaning to a seated position. Although his body felt sore, he wasn’t missing any health. He watched as Tresk ran over, an empty potion vial in her hand. The alchemist pointed at it. “Thanks for that.”

“No problem,” Tresk said. “I had two. Anyway, I think we’re in another dimension.”

Theo grumbled, looking around. “The old dimensional space inside a monster trick. Absolutely played out.”

“Agreed. And yet, I got something,” Tresk said, withdrawing something from her storage pouch. It was the size of her head, holding a pearlescent sheen that caught the light. “Stole it from the sea monster.”

Theo took the item, feeling both the alchemical potential and the conceptual significance of it. Without experimentation it was hard to tell how useful it would be, but he was certain it would do something with his newest experiment. “I suppose that makes this trip a success,” he said, finally feeling well enough to move around. “Now we need only untangle the weird dimensional space… Looks like a normal place.”

“Yeah, anything but normal,” Tresk said. “Pretty sure the entire world is from here to there.”

Theo gestured to the small cluster of trees a few hundred feet away. “There? What about the mountains?”

Tresk shrugged. “Illusions or something? Like the stars.”

Theo rubbed his face. Calling them ‘illusions’ wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t the truth. Since he didn’t want his brain to overheat, he settled on that concept with one exception. “This is what our brains are seeing so we don’t go nuts,” he said, kicking at the dirt on the ground. “I guess the materials here are real, though.”

“Sure they’re not just a figment of my imagination?” Tresk asked, taking a handful of dirt. She ate it. Without hesitation. Then she spat it out, withdrawing a waterskin from her pouch and pouring it into her mouth. “Yep,” she sputtered. “That’s real.”

“Quick recap,” Theo said, helping Tresk dust some dirt from her face and chest. There was still a faint smear on her face, but it was good enough. “Big void outside with many world. Many small voids inside big void, more worlds. So on, so forth.”

“Sounds about right,” Tresk said, nodding. “Question is: why?”

There was something about the structure of their universe that didn’t make sense. Theo could accept that small voids like the ocean world existed because people like Kuzan had made them. But why was there a nested void? It reminded him too much of the nested dungeon they had experienced in the negative dungeon, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. There was something important they were missing, and making sure the void was prepared for the switch was their job.

“Recon time,” Theo announced, breaking himself out of his thoughts. “Let’s get an idea of what’s going on here. I think I can eject us at any moment.”

Discovering the secrets of nested void dimensions was outside the abilities of either member of the party, yet finding useful extra-dimensional ingredients was not. It didn’t take long for Tresk to come across several objects that piqued the alchemist’s interest. After confirming that the area was about 1 square mile, they settled on a log to discuss their findings.

At first glance, the tree branch Theo held in his hands seemed unassuming. Only someone who had attuned their senses to strange magical forces could determine that it was anything but normal. Even if he focused hard enough, he could burrow his senses beneath the bark, feeling an unfamiliar twinge of magic he was certain would work for one of his potions. It would allow him to bind two important concepts together, producing an attribute potion that would be fit for a king.

The second object they had discovered looked like a small stone statue of a frog about the size of Theo’s palm. However, after some investigation, he determined it was a naturally forming frog-shaped piece of bone. What bone that might have been, he couldn’t say, but he doubted the logic in this place was sound. Unlike the first object, he was unsure what use this would have, but he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to pilfer it from the dimension.

After confirming it was only the two objects and nothing else in the dimension, the pair shifted their efforts to searching for a way down. If they were nested too deep, could they be nested three deep? But it wasn’t to be, and they eventually gave up.

“Now the moment of truth,” Theo said, looking skyward at a bank of clouds he knew wasn’t really there. “We’ll head back into the void and look for another dimension, like the water world. Are you ready?”

“Yup. Let’s go.”

Unlike the last time, Theo didn’t find it incredibly difficult to remove them from the nested dimension. He passed directly through the water world and back into the void without encountering resistance like he had in the paper world. His cousin must have established some sort of defenses for the paper world to keep things in or people out. The alchemist then turned his senses to find more of the pocket worlds. He scanned the void, finding it hard to force those places to reveal themselves. They might have been obfuscated, but he eventually detected another.

Taking a deep breath, Theo nodded to Tresk. “Got another one. Let’s go.”

“Adventure!” Tresk shouted as they were drawn toward an imperceptible dot in the distance.

The moment Theo felt himself materialize within the bounds of this new dimension, his skin burned. When the scent of burning everything filled his nostrils, he knew they might’ve been in trouble. But thanks to their adventures in the volcano, the alchemist was all too familiar with hostile, fiery environments. His aura sprang up, infused with the cooling power of a Manashroom to batter away the impossible heat. He felt hard ground beneath his feet, and when his bubble had cooled enough, he dared to open his eyes, only to find what could only be described as hell.

The landscape was an endless roll of rocky hills dotted with disparate fires burning. The sky above was a smear of ash-gray clouds, and there was little else to orient themselves, but the horizon.

“Well, this sucks a lot,” Tresk said, dumping a waterskin over her head. “We almost got cooked.”

Theo tapped his chin. There was something oddly familiar about the fiery landscape, and it had nothing to do with the similarities between the volcanoes. Instead, it was the sense that lingered in the air; something that was more than just the energies latent to a nascent dimension like this. It was a connecting force he felt stretching from here, perhaps all the way to the heavens.

“I’m thinking these are more than just random realms,” Theo said. He looked for a place for them to walk but there were simply no features. It was a flat plane of fire and rock. “Hold on, how about we back out.”

“Yeah, no. Screw this place,” Tresk said.

Theo brought them out in a flash, hovering them in the void a moment later. He closed his eyes, this time remembering the newest gods in the pantheon. Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Arcane. Each represented an element, and while there could’ve been more, he had a straightforward theory about those heavenly realms.

“I’ve got two theories,” Theo said, scanning the void for another realm. “The first is that these realms we’re finding are connected to the elemental gods. Maybe it’s some disconnected part of the system that needs cleaning before we reset.”

“What’s the other theory?” Tresk asked. “This one seems thin. Just because we went into a water world and there is a water god doesn’t mean they’re connected.”

Theo let out a steady breath as the second theory was proved. He locked onto the concept held in his mind, tunneling them through the void. When they stepped out, the scene before them was horrific. Spires stretched high into the sky, a haze of green shadowing everything. The ground itself looked sick, and figures loomed in the distance. The alchemist winced as he reached out, feeling those entities searching. They engaged in the endless search of undeath. The March of Hoi’ch.

“Welcome to the worst ascendant realm I’ve ever seen,” Theo said, gesturing widely. The halls of the Demon God of Undeath, Hoi’ch.”

Tresk snapped her fingers.

“Oh! They’re the ruined realms of the ascendants,” Tresk said. “Makes sense. Guess the system didn’t recycle them.”

“Which means the system messed up.” Theo sighed, looking around as his mind tried to make sense of this. The system should have done its job. It should have recycled these worlds and turned them into energy. But as the alchemist walked forward along the cracked ground beneath his feet, he assumed none of the Ascendant Rones had been properly recycled. Well, perhaps a few had, but those Ascendants who had taken heavenly thrones were the exception.

“How the hell do we clean up this mess?” Tresk asked.

Theo had an idea. He wasn’t sure if they could completely destroy these places, but leaving them here wasn’t a great idea. He sensed undead in the distance, but didn’t feel the spark of sapience. The souls that drove them were proto-souls, closer to monsters than living people. They lived their existence in this place, forever marching in search of the living.

And yet, despite all his flaws, Balkor had left behind a realm of power. Within it was the undeniable flash of energy that represented strength. Somewhere deeper still might be something even more interesting. Theo pressed forward, and Tresk followed closely behind.

The undead moved closer as the duo proceeded, but Theo allowed a barrier to flow from his body, glowing a brilliant silver. He infused it with the Hallow  property and watched in satisfaction as one skeleton attempted to breach its boundary. The creature’s hand was engulfed in silver flames, the fire spreading to its chest and extinguishing the green glow in its eyes in an instant. The other skeletons nearby did not get the hint and suffered a similar fate.

It took a while, but Theo and Tresk finally approached a spire that felt conceptually significant. Ascending stairs, they found their way into a cathedral-like interior, complete with fetid green stained windows and an altar. More interesting than that was the throne that was set just behind it. Frescos lined the walls, and where sections of the gray stone were left bare were other decorations. Tapestries, paintings, and statues of Balkor’s life marked the building.

“You know what would be interesting?” Theo asked, working his way around the altar.

“What’s that?”

“These Thrones of Power,” he said, producing a hammer from his inventory. “They’re pretty conceptually heavy, huh?”

Tresk rubbed her hands together, reaching for the hammer. “Say no more.”

Chapter 21

A Throne With Purpose

Balkor’s throne appeared to be made from bone. But as Tresk brought the hammer down on it, chipping away large sections, Theo realized it was stone. He was certain it shouldn’t have broken so easily, but the realm was abandoned. Not that any of that mattered. As large chunks fell to the ground, he scooped them up in his inventory, feeling the alignment the stone had with concepts of Undeath magic. Maybe it wasn’t useful to gather the fragments of the throne, but it felt good.

“Screw you, Balkor!” Tresk shouted, taking another swing at the chair. “You stink!”

Theo might have had reservations about cannibalizing the ascendant realms if they hadn’t effectively screwed everything royally. Whatever bits of power remained in the realm were his to claim, because there was no one to stop him. An oversight like this should’ve been plugged, and the alchemist was more than happy to take advantage.

“We’re on the same page here, right?” Theo asked, watching as his companion turned the throne to dust.

“We’re robbing all the realms,” Tresk said, jabbing her finger toward a door leading to some back room. “Balkor left his stuff behind.”

“Which means Drogramath left his stuff behind,” Theo said. “Along with everyone else that was ejected from their realm. What kind of crap do you think we’ll find?”

Tresk shrugged. “Trinkets. Doodads. Impossibly powerful items that aren’t compatible with the mortal system.”

“All of those are accurate, I think,” Theo said. “Finish smashing that thing up, and we’ll search this realm.”

After stuffing all the pieces of Balkor’s throne into his inventory, Theo and Tresk spread out to find all the crap that wasn’t nailed down. The alchemist had tried to pull the entire throne into his inventory, but his inventory was having none of that. So the throne was smashed, and each potent piece of a dead realm’s power was now in some backwater alchemist’s personal storage.

Sadly, Balkor’s realm contained a lot of crap. Not a bunch of useful stuff like Theo expected, but junk. Nothing stood out, but that didn’t stop him from putting it in his inventory. He foresaw some issues bringing this junk to the mortal plane, but whatever. The system could yell at him after his crime spree.

Theo came around the side of one spire, finding Tresk pulling apart a wooden bench with her bare hands. She gave him a little wave before getting back to work. The alchemist felt the world around them rumbling in disagreement. Too much of itself had been peeled away for it to maintain a form. The marshling nearly lost her footing as the ground’s shaking increased.

“We good?” Tresk asked, pulling the last board apart and placing it into their shared inventory. “You sure the system isn’t gonna smack us when we leave?”

“No way. We’re doing her work for her,” Theo said. “Can’t have a million old realms sitting around like this. It just isn’t sanitary.”

“When you’re right, you’re right!” Tresk said. “Are we going home, or hitting more realms?”

“One more realm,” Theo said, surrounding them with his aura. A moment later, they dropped into the void. Although Balkor’s realm was distant, the alchemist could feel it crumbling in on itself. His inventory pulsed with items of power, some of which might work for his potion plan. But he knew there were some goodies in Drogramath’s old realm. “Grodul’harak.”

“Bless you,” Tresk said.

“That’s the name of Drogramath’s realm,” Theo said, closing his eyes to spread his senses wide. He could feel it far in the distance, nested deep within the void. “Funny, because I can feel the realms now that I’m looking for them. When I was just scanning idly, I couldn’t. There’s some amount of intent needed to find them.”

“Yeah, but they’re not hidden,” Tresk said. “Yo, can you feel the Bridge?”

Theo shifted his senses for a moment. “Uz’Godan Bokrak Tal,” he said with a nod. “Yeah, I can feel it… But the Bridge is more like a web. Everything else feels like a dot in my senses.”

“Makes sense. The Bridge is a different kind of realm now,” Tresk said. “Anyway, bring us in.”

“Just be ready for his nonsense,” Theo said, folding the void.

A moment later, the duo were standing in Drogramath’s dead realm. Theo did his best not to throw up, but it was tough. They stood in a lush forest, surrounded by trees. But beyond the foliage was the confusing sight of the glass orbs. This realm was a collection of glass orbs, floating in a sprawl of blue. Perhaps it was supposed to be a sky, but each orb was filled with brilliant sunshine, giving the plants plenty of energy.

“Yeah, this place is so weird,” Tresk said, swaying on the spot. She aimed her gaze at the ground, which helped her take a stronger stance.

Theo found the sight less nauseating. Perhaps that was his body’s Drogramathi heritage. It didn’t take Tresk long to find the nearest worktable filled with alchemy equipment and smash it to bits.

“Let’s not destroy this stuff,” Theo said, looking around at the delicate glass. “I’ve got a plan for this place.”

“Oh?” Tresk asked, looking up from the splintered wood on the ground. “No smash and grab?”

“Just the grab part,” Theo said. “No smashing this time.”

Tresk saluted, scampering off to steal more crap. They could sort through it all later. Theo was certain the realm wouldn’t collapse unless they destroyed the throne. It might fall in on itself naturally, but he expected that to take a long time. Satisfied with the first glass orb, Theo and Tresk went around to the various terrariums. Each was dedicated to a different environment which supported reagents.

“As expected,” Theo said, poking a blue flower with a stick. “None are recognized by the system.”

“Or the system doesn’t work here,” Tresk said, taking a tentative sniff of a purple flower. “This one smells deadly. I want it.”

“That just brings some questions on what the system is,” Theo said, drawing closer to the flower. Without a prompt, he had to rely on his understanding of reagents to judge the plant. He sensed elements related to poison, but it wasn’t the most potent he had worked with. “Just wear gloves. Collect a few samples, but don’t destroy the plant.”

Tresk removed a copper pot, three dozen chairs, ten buckets of seawater, and an assortment of sticks from the shared inventory. “Gotta make room for the good stuff,” she said, checking her gloves before harvesting some flowers.

Theo helped, finding the reagents he thought would work best for his plans. The glass orb they were in was dedicated to flowers of all sorts. The poison ones were all together, as were the attribute and restorative ones. After picking their way through a few more glass orbs, Theo and Tresk finally found the throne. It wasn’t in some massive building, but in the center of a glade. The alchemist could feel the power radiating from afar, and that sense only grew as he drew closer.

Theo ran his fingers over the stone surface, an electric sense of potential bristling at his fingertips.

“Gonna take a seat?” Tresk asked, cocking her head to one side.

“I don’t think so,” Theo said, pushing his senses into the throne. It felt powerful, yet incomplete. It was almost as though the system had chopped out the bit that made this an ascendant realm, leaving everything else intact. “This might work…”

“Think so?” Tresk asked. “Can’t just drag an entire realm over to Tero’gal, can you?”

Theo turned from the throne, smiling. “It isn’t that big.”

“Oh, yeah. I’ll just drag a planet around,” Tresk said.

Theo shook his head, pinching his forefinger and thumb together to represent the size of a grain of sand. “Each realm is about that big. A tiny grain of void energy. All I need to do is attach this to my realm.”

“Yeah, screw it! Why not? What do I know about the way these stupid realms work. Steal this one. Steal Zagmon’s realm while you’re at it,” Tresk said, throwing her hands up in defeat. “Nothing bad will happen.”

“Sounds like a future Theo problem.”

Although he had a plan for this realm, Theo wasn’t sure what direction it would go. It was possible the system shot him down entirely, ruining his plan before it started. But if that’s the road they went down, he doubted he would care. As long as the realms were destroyed, that was a win. If he got away with some amount of power, or a bunch of interesting ingredients or artifacts.

For now, Theo was content to leave Drogramath’s realm and head for Tero’gal. His plan was to check out the things he had taken before bringing them to the mortal realm. Before even landing at Boar Hollow, he could feel that something had changed. Tresk let out a low whistle as they appeared by the town. It wasn’t as small as it was before.

Belgar had gone nuts. The tiny town had transformed into an organized grid of buildings overnight. Theo stood in amazements, his brow knitted as he tried to take in the sudden development. It didn’t take long for Belgar to come marching out from an alleyway, wearing something that resembled a suit. He had a massive smile on his face.

“Well? What do you think?” Belgar asked, gesturing to everything around him.

Not only had the amount of buildings in the area doubled, but there were more people than Theo could count. They were all rushing around, wearing similar attire to Belgar. “Business attire?” Theo asked, wincing as he watched a half-ogre woman rollerblade by wearing a pinstripe suit.

“The clothes?” Belgar asked. “It was Tero’gal’s idea. Well, it didn’t suggest anything. A big box of these clothes appeared in our administration building so we started wearing them.”

“You guys work fast,” Theo said, doing his best to push the image out of his mind. Yet there they were… Business ogres. “How is this project going?”

“We don’t have direction from you, but Tero’gal is helping out. We’re starting by figuring out how many people are here. I’ve got Uz’Xulven dumping anyone from the bridge out into a specific building. They don’t come or leave without us knowing.” Belgar released a massive sigh, hanging his head. “Once we get the count here and control for people coming and going, we’re going to do the same for the other worlds.”

“That sounds like an immense amount of work,” Theo said. “And I didn’t expect you to start working on it right away. I thought you’d take some time. Build it up slowly, ya know?”

“Absolutely not.” Belgar seemed to get distracted for a moment, looking toward the sky. “Did you bring something naughty?”

“More than a few things,” Tresk said, winking. “We might have—”

Theo clapped a hand over the marshling’s mouth. “Let’s keep that quiet for now. Also, why is Tero’gal buddy-buddy with you and not me?”

“Guess it just feels like you’re never home,” Belgar said. “So it loves me more.”

“Fair enough,” Theo said. “Anyway, this is great. I’ve got the mortal administration team working on organizing things down there.”

“Things should come together quickly after this,” Belgar said. “Once we have stations in each world, we’ll be golden. My counterpart on Khahak has already made strides. If we’re not careful, that world will be the center of everything.”

“Might be better that way. I’m not sure I want that many people here,” Theo said. He remembered how much he disliked the metropolis that was Khahak. “Anyway, we’re going to the mountain. Not to do anything suspicious. If the world shakes, don’t worry about it. Everything is fine.”

“Yeah, just fine,” Tresk said with a heavy handed wink. “Just the most fine ever.”

“I get it,” Belgar said, rolling his eyes. “Just get out of here before I ask more questions.”