The Newt and Demon-7.34 - The Gangs All Here

The alarm bells rang throughout Broken Tusk. Most members of the local defense force scrambled around, rushing to their stations. Tresk wasn’t sure why. She had reported the dragon Theo saw. It was quite a few miles north of Gronro-dir, so what the hell were they worried about? They might have been worried because everyone knew it was the result of a negative dungeon. Which meant the dragon was an ascendant.

“Hurry and get back, Theo,” Tresk said, gritting her teeth. Her partner was currently in the temporary place between places as he retreated from the dragon. Thanks to the two-to-one time dilation, it would take him a few minutes to get there and back. Or he was just screwing around.

“You’re sure you saw a dragon?” Aarok asked, coming up alongside the marshling.

“Sure did. And I’m gonna kill it,” Tresk said, rolling up her sleeves. A dagger appeared in either hand.

“You can't be serious," Aarok said, shaking his head. "Can you kill it?"

"I've been training my whole life for this," Tresk said. "Of course I can kill it."

Aarok had too much to worry about to correct her, and walked off. A few minutes later, Theo and Alex appeared in the air. They flew down and landed below the battlements on the eastern wall. Of course, Tress didn't hesitate. She jumped down and mounted the dragon goose before flying off.

###

Theo scratched his chin as Tresk flew away. You knew exactly what she was planning to do, but you weren't sure if it was the right move. She was loaded up with enough utility potions that she could get out of just about anything, but still, you worried about Alex.

"Are you coming to the front?" Aarok asked, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "We're sending the trains out right now. You'll be able to get on the next one if you like."

As much as Theo disliked riding the trains, he agreed, heading off with the commander to mount one of Throk's high-speed trams. To his dismay, it took off at top speed, thundering across the landscape and heading for Gronro. Tresk still hadn't reached the dragon by the time they entered the mountain town. The local force was preparing their defenses, and the alchemist was happy to see they had maintained their rail guns well. They were now trained north toward the wasteland.

The Dwarven Duke Grot was waiting for them in the town's center. He had a smile on his face and an axe in his hand. "I've never slain a dragon," he said, slamming the axe against his breastplate and laughing. "There's a first time for everything."

Theo had a feeling they wouldn't need to slay the dragon. He suspected the monster emerged from a negative dungeon somewhere to the north. He wasn't sure how any dungeons could survive over there, but it was undeniable. The dragon wasn't undead, meaning it wasn't tainted by Balkor’s necromantic magic. It was a fresh spawn from some random dungeon.

Tresk spotted the dragon, and Theo watched through her eyes. It wasn't heading south; it was making its way to the west. In that direction, it would only find more destruction for a few thousand miles before finally hitting Tarantham, at which point it would be cut down by the might of the elves. But before the marshling could engage, another figure emerged. What followed was the most confusing series of events he had seen in quite some time.

"Someone just tossed a giant net over the dragon," Theo said, scratching his head. "Tresk is cursing and throwing daggers at him, but he's got some kind of shield."

"Seriously?" Aarok asked, his face twisting into confusion. "Did we just ride out here for nothing? Hey, how about you keep me updated?”

Theo nodded, watching the events play out through Tresk's vision. Whoever tossed the net over the dragon was using some kind of magic to repel Tresk. Theo couldn't tell what the person was doing, but the dragon eventually calmed. The dragon itself was a four-legged, winged, classical dragon. Its scales were shifting shades of opalescence. Once the dragon had calmed, the person who had subdued it gave Tresk a big thumbs up before climbing on the creature's back and flying away. She watched, gawking the entire time.

"I'm pretty sure someone just tamed the dragon," Theo said, more confused than when the situation started. "Let's wait for Tresk to get back to hear her first-hand account. She was pretty far."

It didn't take long for Tresk to return. While she seemed rather pissed off, Alex was very excited about the events. The moment she landed, she started jabbering about what she had seen, and how powerful the person who had subdued the dragon was.

"That was Elrin, dude!" Tresk shouted, throwing a fit. "He stole my dragon."

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"Are you certain?" Theo asked.

“Yeah, he was riding a giant eagle. And then the eagle disappeared, and he jumped on the dragon's back after throwing the net,” Tresk said, throwing our hands up in the air. “I can't compete with that. He made me look bad."

Theo withdrew the communication crystal from his inventory and squeezed it. He felt the haptic call going through, and then Elrin picked up.

"Yes, that was me," Elrin said, chuckling. "I saw your companion coming to fight the grand dragon. Apologize to her for me."

Theo was pretty certain he knew what was going on. "Did you tame a dragon?"

"Indeed I did," Elrin said. He seemed far more excited than normal. He was normally quite dour. “The ones I remember were a lot weaker.”

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Theo chatted with the man for a minute, but the moment he brought up what the guy's plans were, he hung up without warning. Apparently, that was a line too far for him. The alchemist let out a sigh and relayed the tale to Aarok and everybody else gathered. ℝ𝓪ꞐՕᛒËS

"If this guy would just work with me," Theo said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We wouldn't have panicked situations like this."

"Are we angry that he's playing world defender?" Aarok asked with a shrug. "If he wants to take out the big bads while we ride out the end of the world, what's the problem?"

"The problem is how strong those monsters are," Tresk said, folding her arms. "If we think about how hard it is for Miana to tame the wolves for the goblin wolfriders, you can see why we're concerned."

"It takes her at least a week to tame a pup," Theo explained. "This guy just flies up and tames a dragon in a few moments. No, he's scary. And these aren't just normal dragons either."

"It was an Ascendant Dragon," Tresk explained. "Which, depending on how you think about it, means that it satisfies two conditions. It is strong enough to command a realm, and over level 100."

"Well, when you put it like that, yeah, it seems kind of concerning," Aarok said, shaking his head.

Theo withdrew another crystal from his inventory and squeezed it. As expected, Fenian picked up pretty quickly.

"I need a face-to-face," Theo said, trying not to sound too grumpy. "Since you fell through on your promise to help me take care of the dungeons, I need you to get your ass to Broken Tusk."

"Oh my, my dear alchemist," Fenian said. "I'll be there with haste."

Theo hung up and looked at his people, shaking his head. "We're about to bring more elves back from space, so I'd like to be ready for what happens. Are we making progress on the other dungeons?”

"We'll have more of them destroyed soon enough," Aarok said. "Do you have any concerns you want to share with the rest of us?"

“Just a buildup of energy from when we bring the space elves back. You know, it's going to cause another surge of void magic, which will send the current dungeons plummeting.”

There was some debate about how bad the plunge would be, but Theo wanted to expect the worst. Keeping everything stable was a weird game of whack-a-mole by now, and he really wasn't sure what the best approach was. Right now, he wanted to understand exactly how strong Elrin was. How high of a level did he get before that other world was reset? What sort of hidden talents was he sitting on?

Despite Theo's lack of faith and Fenian, he came pretty quickly. It was surprising enough that everyone rode the train back, and the karatan-drawn carriage appeared near the town's square, only about an hour after he had been requested. The thing that did shock the alchemist was who stepped out of the carriage. Fenian came first, but then it was Jan and Twist.

"Those aren't faces—or a mask—I expected to see again," Theo said, glaring at Jan.

"Apologies," Twist said with a bow. "I didn't expect our animosity to be squashed so easily."

"I'm not sorry about a damn thing," Jan said, crossing his arms.

"Oh, play nice, you two," Fenian said with a light chuckle. "Run around and enjoy all the town has to offer. I’d like to have a word with my best friend."

"Oh, we're best friends now," Theo asked, clicking his tongue. "Funny how you show that friendship. I thought I could count on you to help with the dungeons."

"Well, I was delayed," Fenian said, patting Theo on the back as he led them away from the crowd. "Things got a little wacky, and I might have gotten myself in some trouble."

"Fenian got himself into trouble," Theo said dramatically. "News at 11."

"Do you want to hear the tale or not?" Fenian asked, keeping the mood light by laughing again.

Yeah, the elf had a way of smoothing things over. He knew Theo couldn't stay mad for long because they needed each other.

"Alright man, let's hear it." Theo said, with a shake of his head. They traveled down the road, heading south towards the smelters and the mine.

"We tried to kill Death, but it didn’t go well,” Fenian said with a weak shrug. “We barely made it out. Jan was forced to use a Return Potion and… Well, I have an answer for a question you had in the past.”

"Wait, Jan was born on Earth, wasn't he?" Theo asked. "Where did he appear?”

“It generated a long list of system errors, and he was cast into the void. Fortunately, he was near enough to the bridge that I was able to retrieve him, but it was close.”

"So what stopped you from killing death?" Theo asked. "Was he immune to damage or what?"

"The bastard's just too smart," Fenian said with a weak shrug. "Even back in the day, he was clever. When he dropped the mantle of shade and became Kuzan, he got even smarter. You know, back before the big reset, he was never intentionally malicious. He was driven by the system to destroy everything, but when he became the leader of the elves… I don't know, perhaps he changed."

Theo did not have the same history with Cousin as Fenian did. From what he could put together, Fenian was awakened somewhere between 200 and 500 years ago. He then masqueraded as a member of House Southblade in the Elven Empire. Something happened, and he was cast out. But from what he knew, Kuzan never took direct action against Fenian and his now deceased wife. That was Karasan.

"Was it the Seal of Judgment that thwarted you?" Theo asked.

“In a way,” Fenian said, "When we got there, we chatted with Death, which was odd. He's a lot more reasonable than he used to be and I..."

Finian's words hung in the air, and Theo could feel the implication. He gave the elf some time to collect himself. For once, he seemed genuinely emotional.

“Death has created a queue that locks the soul into a certain fate. Once the next switch happens, the Seal of Judgment ensures he can't change what happens to the souls, and my wife is on the list for transmigration to another realm.”

Which meant that death held no ill will against Fenian, despite the many attempts he might have made on the once-leader of the Elven Empire. That spoke well to Kuzan’s character in Theo's eyes. Once Fenian, Twist, and Jan were in Death's realm, they should have been at his mercy, but instead he had let them live. This was a curious development, but it fell in line with Theo's assessment of the god.

"I've met with him a few times now," Theo said with a shrug, "and he's always seemed very reasonable. I think he may simply have a deep need to be the shepherd for these lost souls."

"As much as I hate admitting that I was wrong, it seems as though in this case, I am," Fenian said, his shoulders slumping. "But that doesn't mean there isn't a lot for us still to do."

"So, your wife is going to be transmigrated?" Theo asked. "Do you know which world she's going to go to?"

When Fenian looked up, his eyes were misty. He sniffled and nodded. "Death has promised her transmigration to my world," he said.

Theo trusted the system, and he trusted the seal. If it did what the system had described, it would ensure Death was honest about his decisions. This was the best outcome they could have hoped for. It was a massive weight off of the alchemist’s shoulders. He felt it physically, almost as though somebody had been pressing against him this entire time, but it was the last bit of evidence he needed.

"Maybe you should try relaxing for five minutes," Theo said, patting Fenian on the shoulder.

"Perhaps you should do the same," Fenian retorted, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Now show me, what dungeons do we need to take care of?"