The Newt and Demon

6.11 - Spheres

Xol’sa stooped low, almost pressing his face against Qavell’s monolith. The king stood beyond the barrier, shooting furtive glances at all those gathered. The wizard moved his hands through the air, controlling a series of floating arcane runes. Theo had summoned both Zarali and Xol’sa to check things out, but it became clear this was a problem for a healer. After that, both Bilgrob and Sulvan came to lend a hand.

“One thing is clear to me,” Xol’sa said, snapping his fingers to dismiss his arcane arrays. “Tresk infected the entire city.”

“Nonsense,” Sulvan grunted. “Poison effects cannot transfer to core buildings.”

“Yet here we are.” BIlgrob had to crawl to get into the room, and crouched as he inspected the monolith. “Allow me to cast Spit’s magic. I’ll clear it in moments.”

“I’m not interested in another plague of frogs,” Theo said. “No offense.”

Bilgrob shrugged.

The group assembled to study the strange development on the monolith came up with nothing. It became a curiosity, more than anything. But whatever that thing was doing, it was weakening the magic’s hold on Qavell’s core. Soon, the king would have control of his city once again. Once that was cleared up, he would decide what to do with the alliance. Theo hoped for vassalship, but full membership into the Southlands Alliance would be fine. So long as he could hold Qavell close in the coming month, he wouldn’t mind.

As with all things that went weird, Theo had to write a report and submit it to the administration team. They couldn’t do anything about it, but he was already impressed with the way Alise had handled the situation. Everyone within the city was fed and watered. Some had even descended from Qavell, coming down to investigate their new home. Others remained in their homes, weapons in hand as they expected an attack at any moment. Given time, they would come out of it.

“Welp,” Theo said, clapping his hands. “I’m off to the swamp.”

Theo turned, leaving the horrid place and preparing to use his Tero’gal Dreampassage ability. He felt a tug at his elbow and turned to find Zarali with an expectant smile. Without a word, he wrapped his will around her and brought her along. He went directly for the Bridge, fearing the effects of the void on the dronon woman. With a nod of approval from the keeper of that bridge, he set foot in his private realm. It was night time and four moons were visible in the sky. The shone bright enough to cast the landscape in a light greater than one moon could ever do.

“Oh! Night time?” Zarali asked. She yelped when Belgar knocked her over, leaping at his sister and hugging her tightly.

Theo turned away from the siblings, heading for the cottage. He spotted a few archways and chuckled to himself. He checked in with Drogramath and Glantheir, who were chatting in the cottage before sorting out the new souls. There was one he thought he recognized, but it couldn’t remember who it was. A few souls became a few hundred. As the alchemist sorted through the twenty spirits waiting, more appeared and got in line.

There were no recent world events, so he couldn’t be sure why they had come. With a shrug, he went through each of them for a brief interview. Perhaps it was his enhanced willpower, or his increasing Wisdom, but he had a good read on all of them. This time there were ten rejections, compared to 300-some souls accepted. The ground beneath his feet rumbled as he accepted them. Tero’gal grew in strength, reaching level 37 and offering a new upgrade.

Theo thumbed through the list of upgrades, finding nothing interesting at first. He had spent a lot of upgrade points on things that would protect the realm. But other upgrades made life better for the spirits within the realm. He spotted one that stuck out to him, although the name was silly. The alchemist inspected it, intent on taking this as his newest upgrade.

[Sphere]

Your realm is now a planetoid! Your pocket dimension now has a proper atmosphere and space around it emulating the real world! Grow your realm strong enough, and the ‘space’ will become more real.

This wasn’t a big upgrade for the realm, but it would allow him to keep with the theme of making Tero’gal a “real world” rather than a manufactured one. The upgrades that allowed him to make the realm more like the real world were the most appealing, so he was happy to take it. After accepting the upgrade, he inspected the realm.

[Tero’Gal]

Mortal Dreamrealm

Owners: Theo Spencer, Tresk

Faction: Unaffiliated

Level: 37

Souls: 582

Expansions:

[Harvesting Array]

[Defensive Towers]

[Landscape Manipulation]

[Guardians of Faith]

[Bubble]

[Simulated Reality]

[Sphere]

Pending Requests: 0

A few more souls wouldn’t hurt the realm, but he got the impression that the ones he accepted today were from Veosta. It must have taken them a bit to work their way into the void where they could be reincarnated in a realm. Theo was surprised they hadn’t gone to an elven realm, but that was fine. Maybe they were part of the doomsday cult.

All the potion making, golem construction, and general tomfoolery had brought Theo’s herbalist and alchemy cores to Level 31. That had also brought his personal level to 31, allowing him to place another point into Wisdom. He had balanced his other attributes out enough that he could dump everything into Wisdom. Intelligence was the next option, but the cold logic that came with that attribute wasn’t appealing. Not without an Intelligence of the Soul potion. And he couldn’t take another one of those.

Instead, he headed to the cottage for some tea. As he walked the dirt streets, he spotted an archway he didn’t recognize. It had sprung up while he was working with the souls, alongside the other usual guests of the realm. Theo entered the building, finding the owner of that gate. An elderly human sat with his hands on his lap. He was bald-headed and had a long white beard. The alchemist narrowed his eyes on the man and took a seat.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Theo said, nodding at the interloper.

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“Indeed we haven’t. Ulvuqor. Knowledge,” he said, inclining his head toward Theo.

“You’re a human.”

“Hah! Uz’Xulven said, cackling. “Didn’t take him long, did it?”

“Not long at all,” Drogramath quipped.

“Go on and ask how old Ulvuqor is, Theo. I dare you,” Uz’Xulven said, elbowing him in the ribs.

“How old are you?”

“I’ve existed since—”

“Time immemorial!” Uz’Xulven mocked. “Seeking the knowledge and power of the ages! OoooOoooOoo!”

Each guest at the table laughed. Except Glantheir, who gave a pained look at the human. Once the laughing died down, the elven god of healing smiled at Ulvuqor. “Don’t let them get to you.”

“I really am a time mage. Or I was,” Ulvuqor said, fidgeting with his robes. “Until I ascended.”

“See, it doesn’t make sense. Does it?” Uz’Xulven said. “Humans can’t ascend. I haven’t seen one, anyway. They would have to be extremely powerful.”

“I am powerful,” Ulvuqor said, folding his arms. “More powerful than you, shadow witch.”

Uz’Xulven snorted, choking on her tea. “Shadow witch!” She cackled some more.

Theo jerked his head, beckoning for the newcomer to follow along. The human stood, straightening his robes before following along. Once they were away from the cackling group, they could hear each other speak.

“I’ve heard of you,” Theo said. He searched his memory for only a moment. “Popular with scholarly cults, right?”

“That’s right,” Ulvuqor said, brightening up. “Although the other gods don’t want to accept me… I’m here.”

“So, you were a time wizard?”

“Something like that. This is a complicated topic and… Secrets, you know.”

Theo had a strange sense of familiarity with the man. He believed that he was a time mage, but didn’t know what that meant. Had this dude been sending himself through time to do stuff? What kind of stuff did he do and why did that feel so important right now? More hints from his wisdom, maybe.

“When were you born?” Theo asked.

“Does it matter?” Ulvuqor asked, punching Theo playfully in the arm. “I’m here now. At least, I think I am. Yes, I most certainly am.”

Theo placed an arm on the god’s shoulder, feigning a friendly gesture. It wasn’t as though he didn’t trust the man, but that little nagging feeling in the back of his mind wouldn’t go away. Wrapped in the willpower of Tero’gal, it was easy enough to probe Ulvuqor. The alchemist resisted narrowing his eyes as he felt the essence of his soul. It was a blood-stained soul, but not in the way that he had killed many people. More that it was attuned to blood. Fueled by it, maybe.

The god offered him a sly grin. “Don’t go searching if you don’t want to find the answer.”

“Do I want to know what that means?”

“You’ll get it soon enough, Dreamwalker. Time has a way of coming back on us.” Ulvuqor held his hand out, producing the image of a familiar planet. Earth. “What do you think led to the destruction of this world?”

Unique phrasing. Theo cleared his throat. “An expanding sun.”

“Oh, you’re so literal. Knowledge, you see, is my domain now. The fall of that universe is a twisted tale.”

“Khahar isn’t shutting you up,” Theo said, looking over his shoulder.

“You people need to learn how to dance around the truth. Have you read the new rules? I didn’t think so.” Ulvuqor scoffed. “Unknown truths are forbidden, but unknown omissions? That’s the sort of gray area I like to operate in.”

“How about this?” Theo asked, allowing his aura to spread over himself and the god. In a blink, they were standing atop a mountain range far from the cottage. “What happened to Earth?”

“Oh, this is Zaul’s core, isn’t it? Let’s test it. The man who saved Earth the first time was named Mark Pritchard.” Nothing happened. “Interesting.”

“So, you were a time mage. Is that how you ascended?”

“Yes, of course. I mastered my magic after the Second War of Ascension and made a loop after going back to the first war. That gave me the strength to force my way into the pantheon.”

“Well, that’s fun. What happened on Earth? Did that Mark guy do something to the sun?”

Ulvuqor chuckled to himself, picking a stone from the ground and tossing it over the mountain’s edge. He watched as it tumbled down, gathering speed as it went. “I only caught glimpses of him. The magic I used was powerful enough to break through. Back to Old Earth, but not enough to see anything before 2060. There was a fight between those things. You know the ones I’m talking about.”

Theo wished he didn’t know. Ulvuqor was talking about the bird-like people that the Harbinger hailed from. If they were fighting on Earth, what the hell did that mean?

“We’re almost certain we’re dealing with one of them.”

“The problem goes deeper than you think. This creature has been dead for untold eons. Yet it lingers. Outside of our system, and whatever system manages the creatures themselves. Good luck purging them. I don’t envy the task ahead of you, future Dreamwalker.”

“Have you seen the future?” Theo asked. It was the only thing he could think of.

“Maybe. Some knowledge is outside of my grasp. I’ll say that you should use your fancy potions and proto dream realm as much as possible. Before someone gets mad and patches it.”

Theo realized that the wizard-god was being stingy with information on purpose. As if to add insult to that thought, he vanished before the alchemist could ask another question. He let out a heavy sigh and shrugged. Nothing he learned on that mountain would tip the scales for the coming hardship. The failsafes represented by the Thrones of Power would have to be enough to see them through. As Ulvuqor vanished, Theo was left with his thoughts. He fell backwards on that mountain, passing into the void rather than slamming against the hard stone.

Drifting through the void could be disorientating if one wasn’t used to it. Theo allowed himself to drift for untold time, tracing a path along the ribbon of the Prime Pantheon. He saw the demon realms somewhere in the distance, only glancing at them before moving along. As expected, he felt parts of himself breaking away the further he got from the mortal plane. He increased his speed, heading to the outer edges of the two most powerful pantheons. The ribbon here was coiled, containing a line of minor realms that seemed uncountable. Beyond that was only darkness, and he turned back before the last of ‘him’ broke away.

Theo descended to the mortal realm, unsure of this information. The moment his feet touched the ground, he headed out from the ritual chamber in Qavell. Those inclined to practice magic were still studying the effects of his Venom potion, but he had a decent idea of what had happened. Tresk stabbed the Worldbreaker with the poison. It had been enhanced beyond what it should have been designed for. The Venom potion now ran through the Worldbreaker’s spirit, however scattered it was.

“Talk about a nasty potion,” Theo said, passing by the king and his attendants. “Wanna get wet and wild, Hanan?”

“What?”

“I’m going to dig through the mud in the swamp. Wanna come?”

“No? Why would I do that?”

“Suit yourself. Remain in your tomb.”

The king shot nervous glances at his attendant. There was something in Hanan that didn’t trust anyone from the city, and Theo couldn’t blame him. A moment later, he ran to catch up with the alchemist. On second look, he decided that Hanan didn’t look as bad as he expected. A playful smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

“We’re grateful, you know,” Hanan said. “For what Broken Tusk did.”

“Glantheir would have castrated me if I didn’t save you guys.”

“You can’t be serious. He wouldn’t have stopped you if you shot us down. Don’t underestimate your kindness.”

“Ah, maybe you’re right,” Theo said, turning to wink at the king. “Your dad was always my biggest worry. Turns out, he was another person’s rival.”

“Are you certain he’s dead?”

Theo was absolutely sure that Karasan was ‘alive’ but it was hard to define life in this world. If a person died, their soul went to the void. But the former king had died in Balkor’s realm. He didn’t know what it meant for a mortal to die in a realm, or what would happen to their soul. More than likely, Karasan was being kept by the necromantic god.

“I’m certain,” Theo lied. “Now take those robes off. We’re heading to the swamp.”

“Really?” Sarisa said, coming from the shadows swift enough to make Hanan yelp.

“A king and archduke in the swamp. I can’t wait,” Rowan said, rubbing his hands together.

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