Grand Saint Alloy

“This won’t work on me,” Conni said, holding the glowing marble.

Tristan frowned, sure Conni was fire attuned, which lowered the chances of him absorbing the essence reservoir, but it should still be possible. His anima worked on the same principles as a kern. Forces could be leveraged to increase the effects of the body just like a kern.

“Why not?” Tristan asked, “Most people assume that a broken kern will kill a person as well.”

Conni shrugged, “The highest tier in my sect was only tier six, so I don’t know. Artifacts work, but also tend to dilute our cultivation.”

Odd words aside, Tristan could agree that testing the possibility was best done on someone other than Conni, “If you did not absorb artifacts, and you don’t break your kern, then how do you advance?”

“Our sacred lands nourished our bodies, it is why I am only tier two despite living here for more than twenty years,” Conni explained.

“Vulcan, please translate,” Tristan asked the only person from another plane he was aware of.

“Remember when you asked about forces in plants while we walked to the alchemist’s place? Entire ecosystems can be generated by a force taking over a biome. The Agni Raja was too small for me to pay much mind if their highest tier was only six, but they probably lived around a volcano, with most of the plant life picking up a force from it. Think trees with ever-burning leaves and sooty trunks,” Vulcan sent an image over of a mountain covered in burning plants, “ Animas have no connection to the primordial forces, and thus need to recoup their losses and advance in tier from their environment. Fire animas congregate around fire, water around lakes and oceans, and so on.”

Tristan’s desire to go sightseeing outside the Caldera went up a few notches. His books on alchemy made it sound like these plants were rare, but everything was relative. In a warm climate, trees that produced heat might not be appreciated as a resource. Tristan had no idea what a volcano was like, but he assumed it would heat up the area.

Grace pulled aside the tent flap and stepped inside. She was holding several baked potatoes on a tray. Her fire kern was developed enough to grant her heat resistance, so the temperature of the potatoes came as a surprise.

After passing them out, Grace sat down beside Conni, “So you waiting on Siren?”

Tristan nodded, “Yes.”

“Do you think this tent will be a safe place to do whatever you’re planning to do?” Conni asked.

“Safe for us,” Luke said from where he was sitting, “Not for you.”

Tristan looked at the cramped tent. It was designed to host five people, but he assumed from the size that three of them were supposed to be children. Conni and most of the army were sleeping in these tents. Normally the unseasonable warmth would make it better, but the ground hadn’t dried out from the melting snow. One had to either get one of the few patches of stone or sleep in the mud.

It was only an hour before Siren stepped inside, “Good morning Conni, Grace.”

Siren took up all the remaining space, forcing all of them to squeeze closer together. Grace handed over the final potato, while Tristan handed over the essence reservoir containing healing alloy. Siren inspected it for a short time before looking back up at Tristan.

“What you are holding is a large amount of healing alloy, I believe that with it we can safely break your kern,” Tristan explained, “Hadrid was skeptical about the chances of getting a force out of it, but I know of no other way to get one.”

“You think this is safe?” Siren asked, not quite convinced.

“Well, safer for anyone with a light, earth, or water kern, as both the architect force and growth force can be found in those three elements. We know that the key to a successful breakthrough is to keep the body stable while it is deprived of essence,” Tristan explained, “The only reason it is always lethal at higher tiers, is that your body becomes more and more dependent on essence. I weigh around three hundred pounds, and if I lost my kern for the first time, my body’s density might kill me. It is something that needs to be built up over time.”

“That’s what you have been doing?” Grace asked, she looked horrified at the thought of Tristan committing what people considered suicide to advance.

“I assume this is not just unsubstantiated theory?” Siren asked.

“No,” Luke was the one who answered, “Most people do not know about my father, but they do know of his exploits. He did experiments on the Plains Caldera’s civil protector and many of the Caldera’s soldiers. All of them died until he got to tier four, which was when he could infuse someone with his essence. Once the wind tuber was introduced, survival went up to almost ten percent.”

“You want me to bet my life on a ten percent chance?” Siren shook his head, “I do not believe it is a wise risk.”

Tristan shrugged, “It's not really my place to decide, if you don’t then pick some of your weaker people. They don’t even have to be tier three, just people we trust. If they get into a fight with the Lord of the Underworld, they will die anyway, so you might as well give them a chance to survive.”

Siren grimaced. He was right there was a large risk, that many people would die. It would be better to give those who would most certainly perish a fighting chance. Only that was not how Siren worked. It was a trait that made him a great captain, decent general, and terrible king. He would not make his warriors go through the pain he was not also willing to experience. This gave him the people’s respect, but no leader would ever be able to do everything, so it limited him to smaller groups.

Without Blacklake and Cole’s support, Siren would have struggled to get the army here. Tristan knew, and he believed that Siren also knew, that he was a rallying point, but that did not make him irreplaceable. Whether that made this a risk worth taking did not matter, Siren needed to take the risk to ask others to also do so.

Sighing Siren nodded, “Alright then. What do we need to do?”

“Well here’s the part we can’t do in the tent,” Tristan said, “Luke and I fight you to the death, or at least that’s the situation we need to set up. You won’t break your kern for that chance at survival unless death is truly imminent.”

“But I know you won’t kill me,” Siren said, “it isn’t even a possibility.”

Tristan nodded, “Sure, that’s true, so we will have to set up a situation where it is.”

He set an artifact on the table. A pair of handcuffs, though the chain was broken, Siren recognized them. They were essence siphons, too often used by the temple to subdue criminals. Tristan had not received any during his stint in prison for two reasons. First, they did not have a metal variant, and second, the last silver devil they tied it on stole them.

“You want me to wear these?” Siren seemed skeptical, “To what end?”

Siren was more than a match for Tristan, though he believed he had somewhat closed the gap with both his architect and growth alloy. However, Luke was still ahead and had only built his lead over time. Tristan could not be sure, but he assumed from the recounting Luke had broken his kern on three different occasions, which should put him near tier six. Unless the speed of progression dramatically slowed down.

“We need to limit the amount of essence you have. We need to make sure it is as authentic as possible,” Tristan smiled.

Siren stood, “Fine then, where will we be fighting?”

The tent was too short for him, so he was left hunched over while he stepped out. It was good that they would be doing it now. Days of marching followed by a sleepless night would lead to mistakes, that would in turn lead to a genuine experience. Siren would not be in any real danger, but he would not know that.

“We are going across the lake to Alchehall, no one is around to watch, and no one will interfere,” Tristan said, following Siren out, “There is a boatman named Frank who was generous enough to let us use his boat in exchange for an artifact.”

Siren snorted, “That does sound like Frank.”

Luke paused at the exit of the tent, “Tristan you go ahead, I’ll grab some artifacts that will help us out and follow you.”

Tristan nodded and waved as he left for the docks. Luke was not grabbing artifacts, he was waiting for Eve and Bruce. Luke had some wind tuber, Bruce had his spear, and Tristan had his essence reservoir. Siren was not aware of this, but with three ways of keeping him alive, this experiment was unlikely to end with his death.