Unlimited Isekai and Other Unfortunate Magic

They drank deeply, the tea burning a path down their throats. Dave felt a tingling sensation spread through his body.

The shards of Zolish recognized dimensional magic within his body, distantly recalling exactly how to wield it. This was ritualistic Void binding, a pact between two or more magi, the key to sharing or transferring power. He's done this exact thing before, hundreds of years ago.

Setting his mug aside, Dave pulled out the wooden board covered in gemstones and held the glass vial containing the Shadow-fluid over it. The vial seemed to pulse in his hand, the dark substance within writhing and twirling in a spiral pattern as if it was alive. He gripped it tightly in his left hand, then extended his right towards Remicra.

"Ready?" he asked.

Remicra nodded. She reached out, her violet-colored clawed hand engulfing Dave's.

Dave pushed all of his soul-bits into the shards belonging to Stellaris and Zolish, leaning on the arcane knowledge of the Voidmancer to manage the transfer process successfully.

The moment their hands connected, the vial of Shadow-fluid ignited. Brilliant, blinding white flames consumed the shadow in the vial, the dark substance burning away to nothing.

The soul bits belonging to Stellaris danced, vibrating in Dave’s soul, carrying power through them, from elsewhere into the hexagram on the board, then across his veins, across his fingers and into Remicra's hand.

Remicra's eyes ignited from within with violet-gold rings, her pupils dilating and contracting rapidly.

Her entire body arched, scales rippling with waves of brilliant color. Before he could react, she shoved him onto the nearby table with surprising strength, her sharp claws deftly ripping his tattered cloak.

"Wha-" Dave sputtered, caught off guard by the sudden intensity of her actions.

“Shush. Don’t move,” Remicra's claws ran across his body with the precision of a surgeon examining a patient. Her touch left tingling sensations in its wake, as if she were interacting with something beneath his skin.

"Yes!" she declared, eyes wide. "I can feel all the metal all around us much better, especially the stuff that’s in you. Whatever in the Abyss you just did worked!”

She reached into Dave’s bag and pulled the Felislice corpse out. Holding onto the metal bird-cat with her left hand, she reached out to Dave with her right hand.

Dave couldn't help but smile, relief washing over him. The amplification had succeeded; Remicra's Metallomancy was clearly enhanced beyond its normal limits. Then he frowned.

“Uh… what if you fall into a coma after?”

“How long was the amplified Strongman’s first coma?” Remicra asked. “Uhh?”

“Sir Wabbor fell into a coma for one day the first time he was amplified,” Dave said. “It got worse the more he amplified himself.”

“If I fall into a coma for too long, you can go back to Dwallis to finish the job,” she said. “The Overseer can’t hurt me if I’m in a coma. If it’s just a day, she probably won’t even notice it.”

“Okay,” Dave sighed.

“Let’s not waste time.” Remicra’s expression suddenly turned serious. "This will hurt," she warned, reaching for a nearby leather strap. "Bite on this. I’ll get the ones closest to your crystalline heart first.”

Dave nodded. He took the offered strap and placed it between his teeth, bracing himself for whatever was to come.

Remicra placed her right clawed hand on Dave's chest, her eyes narrowing in concentration. Dave felt a strange sensation beneath his skin, as if every particle of metal in his body was suddenly awake and wriggling. The feeling quickly intensified, turning from discomfort to searing pain.

Dave bit down hard on the leather strap, muffling his cries as Remicra worked. He pushed nearly all of his points into Vitality to repair whatever damage the flakes were causing by being pulled out. He could feel the metal flakes moving within him, drawn to her power like iron filings to a magnet. The pain was excruciating, but he forced himself to remain still, trusting in Remicra's skill and the power of the amplification.

The dragoness concentrated, her claws moving in intricate patterns over Dave's body. Slowly, painstakingly, she began to draw the metal flakes out through his pores. Tiny droplets of blood and metal formed on his skin, coalescing into larger globules that sparkled in the air between them.

The process seemed to go on forever, each second stretching out in a haze of stabbing pain.

Occasionally, Remicra stopped and went to turn the 25 minute timer over and Dave shifted his attributes around slightly to confuse the Custodix.

Finally, after about two hours, Remicra stepped back, wiping her blood-covered hands with a cloth.

A fist-sized sphere of extracted metal, glinted dully in the forge's light sitting on the table next to the Felislice. Tapping her Ignix Kitlix to ignite brighter and prodding the critter deeper into the forge, Remicra shoved the extracted metal ball into its paws.

“W-what are you doing?” Dave asked.

“Melting it down to forge you a knife,” she said.

“A knife?”

“It’s magic metal,” she replied. “Your bone knife broke. You’re going to need something stronger.”

“I see,” he said. “So… did you get it all out?”

“I got everything out that I could sense,” she said. “You’ll need to get the mermaids to clean the Metal infection from your Aura, I suggest you head to the baths as soon as you can stand. Until you are fully purified, metal flakes will continue to grow near your heart core. As… Garret told you, this is going to take several sessions. I’ll keep the Felislice here.”

“Thank you… Remy,” Dave said, sitting up gingerly, his body aching from the procedure.

"How are you feeling?" Remicra asked, not taking her eyes off her work as she pulled the red-hot metal from the Kitlix and kneaded it in her seemingly fireproof fingers.

"Like someone stabbed me with a million needles," Dave groaned, "but also... lighter somehow. Less… wrong. Damn it, I really lost it at the cafe and here too… Sorry I broke your window."

"Some insanity is to be expected after obliterating an entire dungeon. You were turning into a Metal Sentinel too. You can walk, now, yes? Head to the baths and get yourself cleaned up properly. I'll continue working on this knife. I want to add some reinforcing runes to it."

“You can reinforce metal?”

“Obviously,” she replied with an eye-roll. “I’m a Metalmancer. Burgundy uses me to reinforce metal armor and weapons for his minions. "Since this metal came from inside you, it's attuned to your core already. I will inscribe runes that will make the knife more effective in your hands. It won't be as powerful as a proper magisteel weapon, but it should serve you well. Just don’t try to cut Voidtree roots with it.”

“What do you think can cut a Voidtree?” He asked. “I’d like to bring it to town to sell it.”

“No idea,” she shrugged. “Runic Magisteel reinforced with a specific Archmage-level spell maybe, but I don’t have any of that here.”

"Remy, I'm truly grateful," he said. “You saved me from getting collared. I’ll do everything I can to help you. You’re my friend, my only genuine friend in this insane world… I think.”

The dragoness's scales flickered with a hint of pink before settling back to blue. "Uh-huh. Stay at the Adventurers Guild and come back tomorrow for me to check your condition. The knife should be ready then too. And Dave..."

"Yes?"

"Be careful out there. Whatever in the Abyss is going on with these immortal shadow girls, it's bigger than both of us. Watch your back. Don’t die on me, yeah?”

“They could come after you,” Dave pointed out.

“Hang on. Don’t you have a second bracelet?” Remicra asked.

“Uh, yeah, right,” Dave handed the dead adventurer’s bracelet to her.

Remicra snapped it over her wrist and looked at the stats only visible to her.

“No afflictions or timer,” she said. “Ah. The amplification brought my Metallomancy to Level 57 from whatever I was before. It’s definitely nothing crazy like your extra-day, or stopping time, or punching through solid rock, so I probably won’t fall into a coma. I’ll be fine. I’ll keep the door closed just in case. The smithy’s Ward is made to keep assassins out just as much as it’s designed to keep me in.”

“So if I was…”

“If you had any intentions to murder me, you wouldn’t make it inside the smithy,” Remicra nodded.

“Fine,” Dave smiled wryly. "And Remy?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you for listening. For... understanding. It means more than you know."

Remicra's scales rippled with a soft pink hue. "Hrm," she huffed, her voice gruff but with an undercurrent of warmth, "someone's got to keep you out of trouble, you overgrown hatchling."

Dave eyed the stained glass window.

The dragoness followed his gaze and sighed, grumbling about dumb, impulsive humans under her breath. She picked up the stained glass and held it over the hot forge and then quickly snipped all the excess bits off with her claws, leaving only the smaller part of the frame featuring Lari.

“Here,” she said, handing Lari’s portrait to Dave. “Keep her. I’ll reattach the rest to the wall.”

Dave slipped the portrait into his bag and exhumed another set of gray robes from within, pulling it on.

As he reached the door, Remicra called out, "Oh, and Dave?"

He turned back. "Yes?"

"Next time you decide to steal part of the lighthouse, maybe ask first?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I'll keep that in mind. See you tomorrow, Remy."

The dragoness simply waved a clawed hand.