The Runic Alchemist

“That’s Hellstorm,” Mindseer said as the man and woman slowly descended from the sky. “The other one must be Lily of Ruin. I can sense Depthcaller in the city.”

“It can’t be..” Hellstorm murmured. “Am I dreaming?”

“No,” the pugilist woman beside him replied. “That is indeed the Land-breaker. I did not want to believe this.”

Mindseer had talked with the Land-breaker at length, telling him all that had happened with the Highswords and the Five Kingdoms. Damian had no idea what the Land-breaker thought of it, but he was indeed not very pleased with the future of his Highswords.

“Did you just wish me dead, woman?” the Land-breaker asked with a not-so-friendly voice.

Even though Damian had sealed the guy’s mana, the aura alone in him rivaled—and even exceeded—the certified pugilist before them. That was one powerful guy. Fourth-rankers were no joke, indeed.

“Of course not, Sir Supreme Blade,” Hellstorm said in a calm tone, maintaining a smile on his face.

Lily of Ruin looked like she was about to start sweating buckets. Thankfully, transcendent bodies were not that weak to emotions. She did lower her eyes, though, when the Land-breaker stared at her. Hellstorm’s eyes wandered over the whole crowd gathered there, eyeing Lucian, Sam, and Mindseer a bit more than the others. He too received a look, but it was more for his sharp horns and black chain tattoos on his hands than for his mana or aura.

Unlike normal transcendants, his mana control was flawless, and he did not have enough leakage of aura to match a transcendent-level pugilist. There was no way for anyone to know his rank if he did not want to reveal it.

“How is Alex?” Damian asked. “Did he tell you what happened with us?”

Hellstorm’s eyes returned onto him as he replied, “He did, some ten years ago. How is it possible that the rest of you have not aged at all? A dungeon does not do that to a person. A kid transcendent? Not just one at that. I will have to apologize to my nephew for not believing his tales.”

“What happened here?” Lucian asked.

Lily of Ruin answered, “No one knows for sure, but after the Highswords disappeared in the dungeon, they say Voidshaper went out of control and was attacked and killed by the evil chaos followers. It is truly a pity what happened to this place.”

“Did the pity make you take control of this place and its dungeon? Where are my Highswords?” the Land-breaker said. His tone made it clear what he thought of them.

“We don’t know where they are now, Sir,” Hellstorm replied. His tone was soothing, but there was an edge in it that showed he was not afraid to exchange blows if it came to that.

In front of the Land-breaker—that was bold. The guy sure had a lot of belief in his own strength.

“Do not forget your place, boy,” the Land-breaker said in an even tone. “Tell that snake, this island is off-limits. Play your childish games of power somewhere else. Leave my home this instant.”

“This place was a gift from the Five Kingdoms to the Highswords for their service to mankind. I am sorry to inform you, Sir, but the Highswords are gone now. And Faerunia claims this land back,” said a man from the side. Behind him was an army of Faerunian soldiers.

The third transcendent of Faerunia on this island—Depthcaller. Damian had barely heard their names in passing. He didn’t know anyone called Lily of Ruin, but he had heard Depthcaller was related to the royal house of Faerunia in some way. He and Hellstorm had a history of battle—he had heard that interesting gossip before.

The Land-breaker’s aura started rising rapidly. The Faerunian first-ranker soldiers already passed out, and the second-rankers were showing effects of tremendous pressure on their shoulders. Many were on their knees. It lasted for only a second, though, as Damian held the Land-breaker’s shoulder to calm him down a little.

He did not care who controlled the dungeon or the island, but right now he wanted to meet Vidalia and others to know what was going on. It had been ten years—why had no one used the waygate tools he had given them? His best guess was it didn’t work because of the dungeon. Did Einar and Evrin make it?

He thought there would be some answers, but these old bastards were too crafty to let anything of importance slip by.

Damian spoke up, “Land-breaker, you can do this any time. How about we give them enough time to ‘reconsider’? A day should be enough.”

“Who the hell are you?” Lily of Ruin said. All of Faerunia’s people were staring at him for his too-casual a tone with the Supreme Blade of Highswords, but only the pugilist spoke up.

Damian looked at Hellstorm. It was clear the guy recognized him and Sam; still, he was not eager to offer that information to his companions. Damian did not answer at all. He simply activated the spells he had long since placed beneath all their feet.

Over a thousand Faerunian soldiers lost their footing, falling uncontrollably into the dark abyssal wormhole—the endpoint of which was in the ocean beside the island. It was not a dangerous fall. Still, he doubted they would forget it soon. Even Depthcaller and Lily of Ruin had fallen inside—not expecting a spell to launch so suddenly right beneath them without a single word of chanting.

Only Hellstorm remained, hovering above the dark wormhole made for him. There was a second in which his eyes had widened when Damian showed the amount of mana he was using to activate so many wormholes of different sizes at once.

“You were much nicer to people last time we met,” he said, flying to the side, still maintaining the façade of his fake smile.

“I remembered some instances where I roughed up some of you,” Damian replied.

The charming smile suddenly turned into a face that truly matched the guy’s name. “Don’t involve yourself in things that don’t concern you. For the sake of my nephew, you receive this one and only warning. This is between us and him.”

Hellstorm’s eyes were focused only on the Land-breaker.

What the hell was going on? Hellstorm was not a hot-headed guy—why was he angering a fourth-ranker so carelessly? What the hell had happened to these people?

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