8.14 - DESTROYING BALKOR

The new mix was a combination of the Ablate property from Spit’s Pumice and the Accelerant property from the Lavashroom. When these two properties worked together, Theo got the feeling that they would peel apart the layers of anything, removing it from existence. He supposed the ablate property in particular was useful, as it could dig deeper than just physical things, going deep and removing Balkor’s soul from the objects. Although he wasn’t sure how the ex-ascendant demon felt about it, it hardly mattered.

The objects had to be removed from the mortal plane.

Theo watched as Sarisa approached the flask, dropping a small rock inside and clapping with excitement as it dissolved. The solution inside the glass flask was incredibly volatile, and he wouldn’t want to get any of it on his skin. At least it wasn’t so destructive that it broke all the rules of alchemy. Everything he had learned up to this point showed that glass was neutral, no matter what. However, he was pleased that this rule still stood.

“So what, do we just destroy all the pieces of the demon now?” Sarisa asked.

“I don’t think so,” Theo said. “Doing each one at once might be too much for the world to handle. I don’t know if they’ll release any of his old energy when they’re destroyed, so I think it’s best if we take them one at a time.”

“And we better go do it by the shard up at Banu’s Farm,” Sarisa said. “Closer to a shard means it’ll have an easier time absorbing the energy, right?”

Theo hoped that would be the case, but how the shards worked exactly was still a bit of a mystery. He tried and failed to call Elrin. The beast tamer wasn’t accepting calls at the moment, likely off on one of his many adventures. The alchemist doubted Fenian and his gang knew anything, so it was time for some old-fashioned experimentation. He got Sarisa ready and headed over to the farmer’s hill, ascending the familiar ramp and spotting the farmers going about their day.

The farmers were growing crops at an absurd rate, trying to keep up with the demand of the visitors. Since he had arrived in Broken Tusk, Theo had always marveled at how quickly the farmers could grow food, and now that skill was being put on full display with so many visitors eating so much food. There was a certain tonnage they had to meet every week. It was only going to get worse before the end drew closer, but the farmers were doing their jobs. Between Banu’s farm, Theo’s own farm, and the scattered farms in Rivers and Daub, they could get the job done.

Theo turned the corner around the tower that had sprung up in the center of the farm. Finding the interior mostly empty, he observed the gently rotating shard that emitted an extremely comforting energy. The alchemist couldn’t deny that every time he visited the site, he felt at peace. However, that peace was broken when a gruff voice called from behind.

“Here to put another gigantic, freaking crystal in my farm?” Banu asked, placing his hands on his hips and scowling at the alchemist. The farmer had always had something of a vendetta against him, or perhaps that was just his nature—to be so grumpy.

“We’re thinking of installing at least three or four more,” Theo said. His eyes were still locked on the shard. “Maybe one directly over your house. You wouldn’t mind sleeping on a giant blue crystal, would you?”

“Laugh it up, alchemist,” Ban said, grumbling. “Just give me a warning next time you add random stuff to my farm.”

Theo waited for the farmer to clear out before he said anything. He shot Sarisa a concerned look and said, “Let’s not tell him that the energy this thing puts off could reanimate the dead if we’re not careful.”

“Got it,” Sarisa said, giving him the thumbs-up. “We’re not saying a thing about the undead.”

Before starting this phase of his experimentation, Theo placed the flask of dissolving potion before him to get a better sense of how it interacted with the crystals and magical energies. It seemed okay. He didn’t sense anything unusual happening, but when he withdrew the phylactery and placed it nearby, he felt the shard lurch as though it was attempting to reach out and banish those energies. But that process would take far too long, and they had too many to destroy.

Theo erected magical barriers all around them, weaving both physical, elemental, and magical barriers to contain whatever it was they would release. He felt some of Balkor’s power slipping through the cracks in his defenses, but this would need to be good enough for now. Sarisa stepped away, gaining a healthy distance before the experimentation started.

“Ready?” he asked.

Sarisa looked nervous, but nodded.

Theo held the phylactery tray over the flask for a few moments too long, feeling something within it pushing back. There was still a piece of the old ascendant demon in there, and it was difficult to understand how cognizant it was. He let it fall, watching as the object splashed into the potion and then sank below. Ribbons of green energy rose forth, creating a cloud in the air that seemed to lash out at anything living. Power from the shard joined the fight, pulling back on the green cloud until it drifted through the barriers. Whatever power Balkor had on the mortal plane was destroyed then, the shard drinking the essence hungrily.

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“Is it over?” Sarisa asked, hiding behind the wall of the tower. She only poked her head out to see what was going on.

“Looks that way,” Theo said.

Swirling the contents of the flask around, Theo could see nothing of the phylactery. It was completely destroyed, and the shard had absorbed the remnant energy as though it were nothing. However, the alchemist wasn’t foolhardy enough to feed the potion more, as he was afraid of overloading the crystal with too much negative energy. He would leave that to the experts, but at least he had proof of concept.

Theo perked up when he heard a familiar roaring in the distance. Then came the screams.

“Elrin is here,” Theo said, pushing himself to a standing position. “We must’ve done something big enough to gain his attention.”

Theo and Sarisa jogged to a clearing away from the tower to get a better view of the soaring dragon in the distance. As always, Elrin had a way of making an entrance. The light-colored dragon seemed to mingle with the clouds floating in the sky above, dipping and diving as it rushed toward them. The nearby farmers fled, assuming something worse than what was coming. At least Elrin was kind enough to dismount the dragon far away and make the rest of the approach on foot. But as he approached, Theo could see the sour look on his face.

“What are you doing?” Elrin asked, hands on his hips as he looked between Theo and the Shard.

“Well, you didn’t answer my calls, so I had to do an experiment myself,” Theo said, jabbing a finger back at the tower behind him. “I destroyed one of Balkor’s phylacteries and let the shard absorb the energies.”

“And it worked?” Elrin said, pushing past Sarisa and Theo to look into the tower. “Perhaps we should’ve talked beforehand, but it appears to have worked. The energy was almost too much, but it took it… Interesting.”

“Does that mean we did good or what?” Theo asked. “I took the appropriate precautions, so I wasn’t too worried. But now you’ve got me a little worried.”

“This one was fine,” Elrin said, keeping his eyes on the shard as he spoke. “We’ll need to bring more of them to the mortal plane if you want to keep it up, but this is a great start.”

“Excellent, that reduces the number of items on my checklist by one,” Theo said. “Bring the shards here, get rid of the pieces of a demon ascendant, and oh yeah, gain the favor of every god. I’m still not sure if I need that last one now.”

“I doubt it,” Elrin said. “The pace at which your willpower has grown is absurd. When the next reset comes, you should expect it to be sent back to zero. I don’t think the system takes kindly to things like that. Back in my day, I bent a few rules and had the intervention of the system more than once.”

“Everything else is good, though, right?” Theo asked. “Did you want to go pop off and grab another shard?”

Elrin paused for a few long moments as though he were allowing his thoughts to gather. He eventually nodded. “I’ve got a good spot for one, but I don’t really care to return to that place. However, it’s got to get done.”

This was more of Elrin’s dark past rearing its ugly head. The alchemist really wasn’t sure how he would respond, so he took a few moments before saying anything. “If you’re comfortable,” the alchemist said with a shrug, “we don’t have that many more to place, do we?”

“We have a lot to move,” Elrin corrected. “It’ll be easier once we get more onto the mortal plane. But starting off with only a few, the world needs to get used to it. We’re effectively jump-starting the energies that run the mortal plane, so we have to go slow. Once we get ten, it’ll be faster after that.”

“How would you describe the energy the shards provide?” Theo asked. “The way you explained them in the past, it seems like the world’s life force.”

“In a way,” Elrin said with a shrug. “That’s not inaccurate. The Shard Network is a balancing force. Things wouldn’t have been this bad if the shards were still awake…”

“Wanna come?” Theo asked, turning to Sarisa.

“Me?” Sarisa asked, looking around as though there were another of her standing around.

“Yeah, come on, never be fun,” Theo said, spreading his aura to encompass all of them. Still under the effects of the aura potion, he found his shadowy sphere of influence springing out with little effort. Elrin shot him a nod, as though to confirm their departure. “Right, here we go.”

Theo loved showing off his new ability. He folded the void in on itself, connecting the points between the mortal realm and the void island to a single dot. An instant later, they were standing at the base of a ziggurat, and Sarisa was falling to one side, stumbling at the sudden change in location.

“I’ll never get used to that,” Elrin grumbled, striding off to find the right shard.

“I’m gonna stay with her,” Theo said, kneeling to help Sarisa back to her feet. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Sarisa lied, her orange complexion going pale. “I just need a minute.”

The void island has changed in recent memory. The energies holding it together are fading, and the void seems to encroach further. Theo can see that, at one point, this place would have been bustling with activity from the space elves. When the shards still had a lot of energy, the island would have been very habitable. However, as those energies faded, unpowered by the mortal plane’s unknowable engine, the livability dropped significantly. It was now an aggressively hostile place where the powers of the void clashed with the shards.

“This place doesn’t have much longer,” Theo said. “I hope we can get all the shards before it collapses.”

“Got the one I need,” Elrin said, waving for Theo to follow him.

Theo helped Sarisa to her feet, dragging her through the jungle and over to the shard in question. Elrin had already strapped the devices to it, and the alchemist assumed the spot on the mortal plane had the corresponding beacon.

“So, where are we going?” Theo asked.

“Old Whisperwood,” Elrin said with a shiver. “Near it, anyway.”

“Ah,” Theo said, nodding. “We’ll make it quick.”