The Newt and Demon

“That sounds like more than a ‘little problem’ gods damn it!” Alise shouted.

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Theo shifted uncomfortably in his seat. After leaving Tero’gal, he had assembled the important people in town for a meeting. Alise, Aarok, Zarali, Xol’sa, Sulvan, and Hanan sat around a table in the town hall. The air was uncomfortable before he had even made his statement, but after he told them every aligned core would revert to the default version, Alise had exploded. While he wouldn’t blame her for doing so, he wasn’t as phased. This was a part of this world’s life cycle. Why would a denizen of that world get so upset if they were subjected to it? Then he remembered his desire to change that cycle, and sympathized with her anger.

“Every core?” Sulvan asked.

Theo snapped his fingers, nodding. “That’s where things get tricky.”

“More tricky than losing our most powerful fighters?” Aarok asked.

“I really don’t want to have my connection with Lord Drogramath cut,” Zarali said, wincing at the thought.

“I’m immune,” Xol’sa said, trying and failing to hide his pride. Zarali shot him a look and he humbled himself.

“The new gods aren’t telling me what’s going on. I delayed the mission Void gave me as long as I could. I thought it would keep things in the realms safe, but that’s not the case. But I suspect you could change your core over to one of the new gods.”

Conversation erupted in the meeting room. No one was happy about this. Alise, Aarok, and Xol’sa were immune to the change. Despite everything, they held unaligned cores. Sulvan was the one Theo wanted to watch the most, as he held a Glantheir core. That core would swap to the new version of cores. Maybe. Hanan was unknown, but he had little to say. He sat in silence, hands folded in his lap as he drank it in.

“Theo reminds me of an envoy,” Hanan said. The conversation broke immediately, giving way to the king’s growing wisdom. “Perhaps that was your purpose from the start, but you’re doing a great job.”

“Thanks… Where did that come from?” Theo asked.

Hanan shrugged. “The reactions at this table are interesting. From my perspective, my entire world was destroyed. My father fought against a force he couldn’t stop and lost. That passed to me. Only the kindness of Broken Tusk broke the cycle, so why not put more faith in that kindness? You’re certain this is for the betterment of the world?”

That was a difficult question to answer. Theo wasn’t certain he would call it the ‘betterment’ of the world, rather than a purge. It was more like someone ripping parts of an engine out, replacing things that didn’t work and casting them aside. It didn’t matter to this new mechanic if other things broke while they were at it. As he considered the king’s position, a strange sensation begged questions from the back of his mind. His thoughts lingered on Jan and Sulvan for a moment, then Glantheir. But he couldn’t put his finger on the reason for the sense.

“I appreciate it,” Theo said, shaking off the feeling. “But I didn’t call you here for a debate. If you asked me to kill a god before, I would have agreed. We helped Fenian do it, didn’t we? But those weren’t gods. They were people. What we’re facing now are true gods.”

“Which means we’re powerless,” Zarali said with a nod.

Alise slapped her hands on the table. “Fine. We stink. I get it. What happens when the power is stripped from our cores? Where do we go from there?”

“Tero’gal should fill that gap,” Theo said. “Zarali and Xol’sa can draw power from either Tero’gal or Khahak to evolve people’s cores. Zan’kir already has a core from Khahar, so we can ask him about that.”

“Is this a long-winded attempt to get the entire town to worship you, Theo?” Alise asked.

“It isn’t a plan, but that’s where we’re going.” Theo took a moment. This meeting was to let everyone know to spread the word. Not an interrogation. He had one more thing on his mind. “Sulvan, can you still feel a connection with the Realm of Healing?”

“As strong as ever,” Sulvan said, inclining his head.

“I think Glantheir killed a god.” Theo paused for dramatic effect. He got some gasps, which was good enough. “And now he is a real god. I heard about him back on Earth. While I don’t like betting, I’d put a stack of gold coins on him dragging his realm with him wherever he went.”

“Which means our cores might still work,” Sulvan finished. “Is that why I’ve been tailed for the past few days?”

“That’s right.” Theo wouldn’t lie about it. “So, this is what I want from you. Spread the word about the cores. Assemble anyone who has magical aptitude to research the problem. Questions?”

“About ten-thousand,” Alise said. “But I’ll keep a lid on it for you, Theo.”

“That’s it,” Theo said, clapping his hands together. “Get ready for the end of the world.”

“Yay,” Hanan said, releasing an unenthusiastic whoop.

Theo headed out. There were potions to make and Salire was waiting for him. He was joined by his two guards outside, but soon found himself flanked by Aarok as well. Sarisa and Rowan backed off, giving them some room.

“Jan is up to something,” Aarok said. “That guy is slippery.”

“That’s why I put a special guard on him,” Theo said.

“The special guard he slipped? Yeah, I had my own guys on him,” Aarok grumbled.

Theo paused on the road, narrowing his eyes. He allowed his sphere of shadows to spread out, preventing unwanted attention. “You can’t get good help nowadays.”

“He said he was Level 1 when he took his core. If he took his core,” Aarok said. The pair began walking again. “I don’t believe him. He ordered a weapon from Throk. Which is fine. We’ve had the blacksmiths make stuff for our adventurers before. Something of a bonus for joining. But I got concerns.”

Theo let his increased Wisdom do the job. Whatever Jan was doing, it wasn’t to work against Broken Tusk. Because he couldn’t. Unless he could slip a magical contract, he was bound to do the town and nation no harm. Perhaps he was counting on the shift in the heavens to slip away from the contract. But where would he go and what would he do?

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“We can only watch him, right?”

“His contract is strong,” Aarok said. “The only thing to do is watch.”

This left lingering thoughts in Theo’s mind, but there were a few more pressing matters to take care of. If someone wanted to hunt down Jan and watch him all day, that was fine. But he didn’t have the time to worry about it right now. There were potions to be made. “Handle it however you see fit, Aarok. I trust you.”

“I hope so.” Aarok slapped Theo hard enough on the back to make him stumble forward. “We’ll get through this. We get through everything.”

Theo felt more at home in the lab. Salire greeted him on the third floor. She had prepared the reagents for their next run of new potions. There wasn’t enough time to get all the attribute potions today, but she had prepared everything well enough that they could get three done today. Strength, Dexterity, and Vigor. This was the perfect thing to get his mind off of everything else.

“There might be a gold rush.” Theo checked that all his equipment was clean before starting the run. They had enough strength essence to get that leg of the batch started. “New cores means new potions, right?”

Salire grimaced, helping Theo snap the lid on the still. “I try not to think about it. I’ll think about absurd attributes instead!”

“Good call.”

As Theo worked on the Strength potion, he couldn’t help but glance over at the statue of Drogramath. He had no intention of freaking Salire out, but parts of it had crumbled. The arm had already fallen off and the face section wasn’t looking so good. At least he had put faith in himself, dedicating the temple to his realm along with others. It would be a shame to lose that building.

“Three potions. Maybe six hours,” Theo said, kicking the still into action. “Let’s do it.”

Now that Theo and Salire had refined their process, it was a breeze. That was always the problem with creating new methods of alchemy. The first few attempts were painful, often resulting in explosive failures. But once they understood what was going on, they could zip through each step in their sleep. Alchemy had become such an important part of Theo’s life, he couldn’t imagine a day without it. Just the thought of losing his cores was painful. He didn’t know how Drogramath dealt with it.

“One Major Strength Potion. Coming right up,” Theo said, mixing the final essence in a vial. He watched as a faint cloud rose from the vial, the contents bubbling gently. The prompt for discovering a new potion appeared and he dismissed it, inspecting the item instead.

[Major Strength Potion]

[Potion]

Epic

Created by: Theo Spencer

Grade: Good Quality

Alignment: freēwēbnovel.com

Tero’gal (Perfect Bond)

Drink to enhance strength.

Effect:

+35 Strength for 2 hours.

“That’s a lot of strength!” Salire shouted.

“No kidding. These might be worth making, actually. I know Tresk thought the Major healing potions were good, but this is awesome.”

“Imagine drinking a Major Intelligence Potion and getting real smart real quick. That’s a great way to cheat on an entrance exam to a scholarly cult.” Salire giggled to herself. Theo felt that joy flow across the room, cracking a smile. His worries faded away.

Theo wanted to run more than one still at once, but the mixer required far too much attention. He cleared out the still and starting again, this time adding the essence distilled from the LIghtning Poppy. Of all the attribute-producing reagents, this one was the most rare. It almost never appeared in the wild around Broken Tusk, and the only thing that allowed them to produce large quantities of the essence were the greenhouses. At least those weren’t aligned with Drogramath.

Salire and Theo worked together, rushing around the lab to get the dilution and essence gasses to mix. The alchemist dumped enough mana into the mixer that he had to chug a few Mana Potions. Just enough to keep him going without taking a break. Even the air conditioner couldn’t keep him cool as he fired the still, dumped mana, and monitored the resulting essence.

He brewed the Major Dexterity potion, rushing back to repeat the process. Then he brewed a Major Vigor Potion. The sun had set outside. Sarisa and Rowan had already run off to make dinner at the manor. Theo and Salire were left alone to consider the coming leap in the alchemist’s attributes. He didn’t accept the prompts when they appeared. He allowed the pinging notification to linger in his mind. Jumping 30 Wisdom at once was going to be rough. He wanted to be in bed for that.

“Same thing tomorrow?” Salire asked. She looked exhausted with strands of hair draped over her face and a sheen of sweat soaking through her clothes.

“Yeah. If you don’t mind.”

“I wanna see how crazy this can get!” she shouted, pumping her fist.

Theo closed the shop, allowing Salire to run home for the night. He checked that all the stills were off and locked his door on the way out. The temperature didn’t drop at night in Broken Tusk. Not during the Season of Fire. But that season was coming to a close. Wasn’t it? The Season of Death was on the horizon, autumn practically banging on the door of the region. The alchemist had already changed his way of thinking on the way things were going. Broken Tusk wouldn’t miss a thing. He doubted most citizens would notice when the world restarted.

He would keep them safe in Tero’gal. Anyone who would come.

Theo stopped in to check on Alex before heading to his manor. She was snuggled up on something that looked like a gigantic cloth dog bed. The goose raised her head as he entered, offering a small honk. The alchemist held her massive head in his hands, almost unable to support the weight. He scratched her feathers, making note of the mottled feathers she had gained.

“Are you evolving, Alex?” Theo asked.

The goose winked, offering another honk.

“Alright then. Dragon goose?” he asked.

Honk!

“Excellent.”

“You’re late for dinner!” Tresk shouted, shaking her fist at Theo as he entered. “Why do we have rules!?”

“It was a busy day,” Theo said, sighing into his chair. He barely noticed the food that was placed before him. While he was sure it was delicious, it was hard to pay attention. He dragged himself away from his thoughts to make a statement. “My Wisdom is going to go up by 30 points tonight.”

“That’s a lot of points,” Tresk muttered. “Wish I could get free points.”

“Yeah, that sounds like cheating. Rowan, didn’t he say he didn’t want to cheat?” Sarisa asked.

“I seem to remember something about Khahar and cheating, yes. Perhaps he’s also a hypocrite.”

“A massive one. Indeed.” Sarisa nodded, sage like. “Let’s beat him up.”

“A paddling will set him straight,” Rowan said.

Theo looked up at the pair, shaking his head. They seemed more intent on getting a rise out of him by the day. He ignored their ribbing, considering how much 30 Wisdom would change him. That would push him to 112 Wisdom, meaning he could move on to pumping other attributes. Vigor was likely his next option. Perhaps some Dexterity. Maybe a split between them both.

After dinner, Theo and Tresk headed upstairs. The alchemist could feel Tresk’s longing to be near Alex as they slept. But the barn was comfortable for the goose. Far more comfortable than she would be cramming herself into a small room. She waited for his command, watching as he got under the covers and prepared to be sent on his butt. Theo placed 30 attributes points into Wisdom. His vision swam. The room spun around him as though he had been on a month-long bender.

A moment later, they were standing in an imagined version of Tero’gal.

“That was a close one,” Tresk said, wiping her brow.

“No kidding.” Theo flexed his hands, testing his balance. The dizziness he felt in the real world was gone completely. “Thanks for the good timing.”

Alex flew in from the distance, honking in delight. “I love my new barn!” she shouted.

Theo and Tresk hugged the goose for a minute before he turned away. It was time to pump his willpower as far as it would go. If he wanted to navigate the void, he needed it.