The concerning part about developing abilities related to predicting futures was the unfurling of fates. This was something Theo had expected based on things Khahar told him, but he hadn’t been eager to experience it. He stood by the entrance to the dungeon, tapping his foot as his mind adjusted. Before, it was easy enough to watch future events play out. He would see a person move before they should, and could scrub through the events with relative ease. Now he saw the threads. Only one or two for now, but he suspected it would get worse.

    Theo squinted, watching as a new thread appeared from the entrance of the dungeon. He grabbed onto it with his mind, tugging to view the event. It was nothing interesting, but the confusion was still there.

    “Imagine if you could tame something like Frank,” Tresk said with a wistful sigh. “I’d ride that bad boy all over the place.”

    “Think about the food you’d have to find,” Theo countered. “It wouldn’t be cheap.”

    “Bah, I could do it.”

    Despite what he had expected, none of the fates Theo viewed ended in disaster. But he got to watch an alert pop up for his future self, informing him of something only slightly concerning. The elves would wake in about a minute. Instead of rushing to the infirmary under the temple, he watched the entrance to the dungeon. There was no movement. Not even after the message came for real.

    “I expected a surge of void energy,” Theo said. He wasn’t disappointed, just surprised.

    “From the elfies?” Tresk asked, scratching her wet little chin. “Makes no sense, boss. Those elves were already drained of their void magic. Worry about the ones you still gotta bring in.”

    Theo grumbled. He wasn’t in the best mood after battling against Frank and the dungeon within. Well, he had one thing to be happy about. With Xol’sa’s help he could now nuke the dungeons. He focused on that and his mood improved significantly.

    “Now that I think about it, I’m not really worried about much,” Theo said. He had to admit at least that much to himself. “What’s your take on the dungeon nuke? Think it’ll be effective?”

    “Well, I have something that’s gonna help with that... heh heh heh... But that’s a surprise tool we’ll save for later,” Tresk said with a wink. “But, yeah. The giant nuke should work fine for the Ocean Dungeon. Drop the nuke, give it a few hours, then check it out. Easy-peasy.”

    Theo wished he had her confidence, but he simply didn’t. There were many things that could go wrong, and he simply wanted to be prepared. The calls for the alchemist to come back and check on the awake elves grew too loud, and he had to leave Tresk, Sarisa, and Rowan there at the dungeon to sort things out.

    “See ya,” Theo said, waving as he departed from the dungeon. Tresk did a couple of heroic poses, which gave him an odd amount of confidence to face the issues with the elves.

    Thankfully, Zarali, Bilgrob, and Sulvan were handling the situation very well. When Theo arrived at the temple, he found the junior administrators hard at work. Several hundred elves were coming up from the infirmary, squinting around and muttering with confusion. There was plenty of housing for them, but with so many folks coming out of century-long bouts of insanity, they would need to be under strict contracts. The alchemist pushed his way beyond those elves, finding Sulvan waving him over from the area near the altar.

    “Theo. Thank you for coming,” Sulvan said. The smile that hung on his face was genuine. “I’m happy to report each elf is awakening without issue. They’re all very confused, but they seem eager to sign contracts with the alliance.”

    “Do they remember much from their past lives?” Theo asked.

    “Indeed, they do. Unfortunately, it’s nothing good. To boil their story down, they stole the shards that were keeping the world together and ran away to space,” Sulvan said with a shrug. “Things went wrong right away, and they all went insane.”

    “That lines up with what we know. How many retained their cores?” Theo asked.

    “None. Some even had their core slots burned out, which will require additional recovery time. It’s fairly grim, but this was the best possible outcome for them. We really made a difference.”

    “Do you think so?” Theo asked, watching as more elves came up from the catacombs. “I guess we did, huh?”

    “More than you know, tiny demon,” Bilgrob said, scooping Theo in a hug from behind. He squeezed—perhaps a little too tightly—before giving him a big kiss on the head. “Spit would be proud!” RA??obΕs

    “I can go ask if you like,” Theo wheezed. “Please put me down.”

    Bilgrob released him, patting the alchemist on the head a few times. “When I was first told of this plan, I thought it was idiotic. But thanks to your alchemy—which makes absolutely no sense to me—we have done it.”

    “Don’t discount your healing abilities, Bilgrob,” Sulvan said. The smile on his face seemed to grow wider by the moment. “The potions started the process. But we guided their souls into place, and prevented them from dying as they recovered.”

    [Swamp Dungeon] L30 Dormant

    [River Dungeon] L19 Dormant

    [Mountain Dungeon] L3 Dormant

    [Ocean Dungeon] L-1 Dormant

    [Cave Dungeon] L45 Dormant

    Theo turned to Tresk and placed his hand on her shoulder. “One less dungeon,” he said, nodding to her.

    “I actually can’t believe that worked,” Tresk said. “Seriously, I thought Frank was going to come bursting out of that portal at any moment.”

    That’s exactly what Theo had expected. Instead, he felt his mind going numb when his thoughts finally caught up to him. He could only think of doing one thing. Theo and Tresk had hired somebody to work the stills to create the zee liquor. It was intended for the end-of-the-world party, but even after only a few days of brewing, they had a significant stockpile. It didn’t hurt that when it was brewed, it had to be watered down so it wouldn’t render whoever drank it blind.

    The alchemist cleared his throat as he composed a message to the city.

    [Theo]: The Hills Dungeon has been destroyed. Free booze at the city’s square.

    “Oh, now you’ve done it,” Tresk said, cackling. She reached into the small bag on her hip and withdrew an overly large barrel. “I’ve been waiting for such an occasion.”

    The half-ogres and marshlings of the town were normally well-mannered. They didn’t go out of their way to cause a ruckus, but once alcohol was involved, all bets were off. They had left alone his store of liquor until now, but the moment he made the city-wide announcement, they broke into the barrels. By the time Theo and Tresk arrived at the city’s square, stacks of the barrels were arranged around the gaudy statue dedicated to Zarali and Xol’sa.

    A half-ogre dove from a nearby roof, landing hard on the ground and issuing an audible snap. He stood a moment later and thrust his fists into the air.

    “Are they seriously already drunk?” Theo said, jamming a finger at the offending half-ogre.

    “You said free booze,” Tresk said with a shrug.

    “I suppose I should have seen this coming,” Theo said, crossing his arms.

    The alchemist had no plans to partake. He really didn’t enjoy dulling his mind when there was so much risk of danger in the Alliance. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t join in the festivities. Half-ogres were known for their ability to make a game out of literally anything. They wasted no time setting up impromptu booths or breaking off into pairs after getting a drink of the watered-down liquor. It seemed to be potent stuff, and although it wasn’t alchemically useful, it served well enough as a drink.

    It only took about an hour for the party to break into complete chaos. Theo mostly stuck to the sidelines, taking part in a few games, but mostly just watching. He was mostly interested in the 10 or so space elves that came out of the dorms to partake, to his surprise. Their minds were very well intact. From what he had been told, many of the elves were having issues adjusting to the mortal realm once again.

    Eventually, the first elf to awaken from this batch came up alongside Theo, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Can’t say I ever expected to see this day,” Kalan said.

    “As long as you guys don’t mind that we’re moving, then everything should be fine,” Theo said with a chuckle. “Must feel strange coming back to the mortal plane only to leave it so soon.”

    “So long as we’re alive, I’m happy,” Kalan said with a weak shrug.

    “Yeah, let’s do our best to keep it that way. Make sure your people don’t drink too much. This stuff is pretty potent.”

    The party rambled on through the night. There might have been a lot of things to do, but it was nice to take a moment and appreciate what they had created here. Theo planned on taking a break before tackling the Ocean Dungeon. That required a bit of scouting anyway, so he could take it easy until the healers were ready for the next round of space elves and dungeon destruction.