Grand Saint Alloy

Tristan watched in morbid fascination as Hadrid found and diced what could only be called assassins. Hadrid made them look incompetent as he sent out waves of metal filament that cut anything he deemed an enemy. This was insane, a tier five was strong, but they should be at most twice as strong as a tier three. However, what Hadrid was showing off crossed the reasonable difference that a tier advantage should give.

He pointed at the hill where Eve and the others were still sitting on their horses, “IF ANY OF THEM MOVE!” Hadrid yelled, “KILL ALL OF THEM BUT THE GIRL.”

The army of citizens nodded. Tristan knew they were malcontents and criminals, but here they did not dare disobey the landlord. It was a small price to pay for security from the Caldera Elders. Normally the only requirement was quiet and some supplies every now and again. It was the reason for the grain fields, the alchemist went through a truly mind boggling amount of flour as a filler in his edible products.

Eve had thrown up, and from her expression she wanted to do it again. Clive had his eyes shut tight. Bruce had a shocked expression, he had most likely assumed Tristan had exaggerated Hadrid’s abilities. Their escort froze as soon as the alchemist shouted his order, their eyes trembled, but they were not called elite because they lacked self control.

Hadrid turned his eyes to Tristan. It sent a chill down his back. When he and Luke had visited before, the alchemist had been cranky, rude, and eccentric. Despite the insults bandied back and forth, Tristan had the impression that Hadrid enjoyed having someone around who treated him as an equal. His eyes now were exactly the same, it made Tristan wonder if he was always ready to snap. Tristan could actually see a lot of similarities between Hadrid and Luke. Then by extension himself.

Hadrid knelt down next to Tristan and inspected him with curiosity, “How are you doing that?”

“Doing what,” Tristan asked reflexively. The burning in his ribs intensified, the vibrations from speaking exacerbated the pain.

Hadrid raised an eyebrow, “The troll did not tell you about forces?”

Tristan smiled, at least that did not hurt, “No, troll didn’t.”

What was wrong with him. Tristan had a voice in the back of his head yelling at him. He had just watched this man cut apart men like a baker would cut a cake into samples. The entire yard was filled with bone fragments and pieces of viscera that was quickly being cleaned up by the golize. After all that, Tristan was joking about how Luke acted like a troll.

The logical part of his brain, or at least what Tristan called his logical mind, had been running his life for a long time. It would have stayed that way if Eve had not showed up with her strange irrationality. She was a vegetarian, why, animals had feelings. She even felt sorrow at the deaths of those who wished her harm. Irrational, yes, but also human.

Hadrid seemed to read the conflict in Tristan’s eyes, he smirked, “What’s wrong, didn’t you know that hardship is the mother of progress.” He looked around, “well not for them, all they did was ruin my lawn. But you, you get to progress.”

Tristan did not even have time to object when Hadrid threw him over his shoulder, as if it was an after thought, “Ruth, you can let your sister and her friends in if you want, I know you have some catching up to do.”

The maid, Tristan wondered how he had gone that long without finding out her name, nodded, “Thank you, what do you want me to do with the escort?”

“Huh,” Hadrid had forgotten about the team of elite warriors on his doorstep, “Oh yeah them. Well, have any of the citizens been particularly outstanding.“

“Fran got the living ghost crab for you,” Ruth supplied.

“Good, I’ll run some tests with essence diffusion and Fran can have the prototypes I come up with,” Hadrid nodded.

Tristan gritted his teeth at the pain Hadrid’s nod caused his ribs. He really wished he could pass out now, Hadrid was showing no care for the fact that Tristan was currently injured. Normally it took a week to full heal, unless someone with a way higher tier supported him. He had a small hope that a speedy recovery was what Hadrid wanted.

Hadrid entered his castle, carrying Tristan like a sack of potatoes, “So, tadpole, do you know what a force is,” Tristan only just barely kept himself from swearing at the alchemist. “Of course you don’t, you’re a plebeian. But even a miser can become wise in my presence.”

They entered the lab with all of its equipment and started heading for the back wall. Tristan saw the metal coffin and started panicking, but there was nothing he could do. Hadrid flipped the lid up and set Tristan down on the metal table.

“Essence is not the smallest measure by which we can interact with reality, in fact all essences are composed of forces that work together to create what we know as elements,” Hadrid took out black and red essence reservoir, “for example both fire, dark, and air share the force of decay. It also happens to be a part of metal affinity in the form of rust.”

Tristan stared at the orb with fear. He did not care about how fascinating a specific type of energy or material was at the moment. Was Hadrid going to make him eat a reservoir filled with concentrated decay. That would kill him, no doubt about that, he had seen what this ‘decay’ force had done to Sun Set’s hands, and she had an innate resistance to it. If he put it in his mouth it would rot his brain out.

“Us metal kerns can get access so a force called alloy, if we shatter our kerns while exposed to a deadly essence. You got it when you were exposed to the dark essence’s concept of consumption at some time,” Hadrid gave an evil smile, “I have never had another metal kern to experiment on, it will help when I become a hero.”

The alchemist reached for Tristan’s jaw and tried to peel it open. Despite the pain of keeping his mouth shut, Tristan refused to open his mouth. Hadrid raised an eyebrow as if to say, really, why would you impede science. The alchemist placed his index finger on Tristans front teeth. Metal essence leaked out and flowed between his teeth.

Tristan tried to spit it out, but it solidified into tube large enough to drop the reservoir into. Tristan would have thrashed to dislodge the pipe, but he was too weak to even shake his head. Hadrid dropped the decay marble down and placed his hand over the pipe so Tristan could not blow it back out. It started dissolving immediately and burning. Like he had swallowed acid, though he assumed that acid and decay would feel similar.

Hadrid took out a silver marble and dropped it in as well. While he waited for the marbles to dissolve, Hadrid leaned forward, “You brought Kerri here tadpole, just be glad this is all I require of you.”

Hadrid said more, but Tristan was in no state to pay attention. It felt like he was choking, but his lungs were filling. Whatever the reservoirs had done, it was not good. He could feel the edges of his kern, they were breaking down, and the metal essence reservoir helped it recover. Tristan was not sure how long he was there.

He only knew that Hadrid had started taking notes and that Ruth and Eve had shown up at least once. When his consciousness could not take any more he started to black out. Normally, that would be a bad thing, but at this point it was welcomed. In the space between consciousness and total shut down, Tristan felt something familiar.

It was like the distant source he now knew to call a force, but much closer. He had felt it once before when he had reached tier one, it was close, in fact tendrils of this force was the glue holding his broken kern together. Now that Hadrid gave him a name, he knew what to call it, the force of Alloy. Tristan’s kern was filled with an alloy that was part consumption. Before it had felt comforting, now it felt hungry.

It was terrifying. It was expansive and seemed to infect everything, like it would assimilate the whole world if it could. Tristan watched, half conscious as it started consuming the decay and metal essence. It was not diluted, only strengthened. Tristan felt the force inching closer to his mind, he realized that it might be prudent to flee.

Inside his own mind there was only one place to go. He let go of his awareness and abandoned his consciousness.