The Runic Alchemist

"Tell us everything you know about the one you call the Divine One.." Damian asked another question.

He was a massive, towering, chained figure inside his palace, which was built more like his grave. He was bound all over by gigantic chains. They were tightening day after day, and the bleeding of the Sun God never stopped. He rarely woke up, staying unconscious most of the time. Sulthar was protecting him at all times, never leaving his side.

Damian looked beside him. There was one more question remaining, but he had already learned all that he needed to learn. Damian thought about what he could ask more, and an idea came up. How far did the influence of this spell linger? What else could he do?

Looking at the red Demon with a smile, Damian said, "Since you are cooperating, I will let you go tomorrow. You cannot say a word about us to anyone, though."

All the highswords stared at Damian, but by now they knew to go along with his weirdness instead of asking questions. Worldscribe wrote it down, and the Demon too looked shocked after reading it. Damian just turned around and walked away. The Demon kept using the tool to ask more, but they all decidedly chose to ignore him.

Coming inside the wooden building, Damian took out an apple-like fruit this world had and plopped down on one of the wooden chairs.

"Was that true? Or a trick?" Sesha asked, her face serious.

"Both," Damian replied. "I will let him go. The invisible shield he is trapped in is using—taking his mana by the second—and there is no mana inside for him to regenerate. When he is down, I will use my spell on him so we can skip the journey and directly go for these lords."

Sesha nodded. A few of the others also nodded in understanding.

"So this is it? We fight four Legendary monsters atonce? Not to mention that Sulthar King guy..?" Silverspell asked. There was no hesitation or conflict on his face, just a pure question of what their plan of action was going to be.

Damian looked everyone in the eyes, took a bite of his apple, and said, "You all heard the descriptions of our enemies. This Demon won't be a problem anymore, leaving four monsters against us six. I can use the Waygate spell near each of you, to separate the lords. All I can promise is a fair, undisturbed fight.."

"That giant gorilla sounds like a better match for my abilities.." Runefather said with a firm voice.

"I can probably protect myself against that molten metal and lava giant with my ability.." Sesha said. Damian nodded at the two.

Worldscribe added, "The human mage.. I don't know if I can do it. But I will do it anyway."

"I will go with Runefather.." Silverspell added.

So did Lifewarden. "I will help Worldscribe."

The two shared a tender moment, looking into each other's eyes. Everyone decided to not notice it. Damian turned towards Asher.

The guy just shrugged, and the blue screen flashed: 'If you say so I will go, but I can't use many of my abilities..'

Damian nodded, then said, "Fear not. I will help you as much as I can before we do this. Asher, you can take as many golems as you want. And all of you can request any kind of weapon that you think will help you in the fight. I will provide the steel mana cube to each of you, also added with a Waygate spell connecting here. Do your best, and stay alive."

"Wait a second.. You will face that Dragon King and the Sun God alone?" Runefather asked suddenly.

Asher said, 'The Sun God doesn't seem to be as active.. I don't think he will take the trouble seriously. Plus, he seems to be trapped.'

"Yes," Damian said. "Don't worry. I will be well prepared."

Worldscribe's eyes widened. She knew what he meant and nodded with a smile.

Damian, Asher, and Runefather spent the whole day creating and designing weapons and armor pieces. One by one, all the highswords revealed what they needed the most, and Damian tried to make the exact thing—or the next best thing. Sometimes, even creating something that was better than what they asked for.

Damian thought for a second to tell them it was only for the battle, but then, remembering what these people might have gone through living for 100 years in this place, he decided to let them have these small rewards. It was nothing groundbreaking, just tools better suited for their abilities and fighting styles.

The red Demon had already realized that the invisible box was not as simple as it looked. It was draining the Demon of his mana at quite a high rate. The whole square invisible box had big sky-blue runic circles inscribed all around it—visible from both sides. The Demon's mana was being used to power these runic circles, conjuring tons and tons of water, which was running through the mountain crevice, bringing new life to this stony region.

The Demon could not help it, though. If his limbs were touching the invisible walls, the spell was automatically activated. If he was flying in the middle, not touching any side—his mana was still being used-for flying, and it cost more than the automatic draining did.

By late night, the Demon was finally exhausted of all his mana and fell asleep due to the lack of mana in his body. Damian used a wormhole to get inside and touched the guy to get his ID using the modified gravity spell—he had made the runic circle small and with just one section, so the process of getting the ID was much faster compared to before, where he had to maintain contact with someone for several seconds.

Done with the preparation, Damian, along with everyone, took a nap. A fresh mind in such a dangerous fight was a necessity.

The next day, Damian repeated the warning he had conveyed to the Demon as his third question and opened a wormhole connecting the outside Waygate beside the guy. The Demon hesitated and was conflicted, but after a couple of hours of staring, he finally accepted his fate and stepped into the wormhole—going through the Waygate back to the place Damian and the Demon had fought earlier.