Odyssey of the Guardian Emperor

Alaric had never had any keen interest in alchemy. He was fascinated by how alchemists took all the seemingly boring things in nature, extracted the very essence of those things and refined them into pills and elixirs capable of achieving miracles, and yet, even then, he was still not as captivated by it as Finn and Troy were.

Perhaps it was because of his love for swordsmanship and magic, or the fact that the path of an alchemist was hard enough without him adding his ambitions to it. Bottom line, it wasn't a path he saw himself taking at any point in his life. He did, however, acknowledge how interesting the whole craft was and wasn't opposed to arming himself with a bit of the theoretical knowledge.

And rather than become an alchemist himself, he was willing to help those interested in it, specifically Finn and Troy, reach the very pinnacle of this ludicrous art. Yes, he was interested in the money, especially after the insane price tags he'd seen in Old Thai's shop.

Curious about the value of the things around, he slid a golden ring over his finger as they helped Troy transfer the items he needed outside the tent.

By the time they'd set Troy's cauldron on the table along with a large transparent basin of boiling unrefined bases, and a scattering of various ingredients here and there, a group of golden and white-haired people had gathered, most probably attracted here by the aura of their Master Alchemist Corv'ak.

Troy had already won the praise of the old man, and now, he was to demonstrate a procedure to all the aspiring alchemists. Naturally, Troy looked nervous, but for the first time since meeting the boy, Alaric wasn't worried. In the face of alchemy, Troy was a different person, and it showed in the childish spark of wonder in his eyes.

Here, he was in his element.

Alaric looked around, his vision adjusting to the enchantments the ring placed on him, demanding much less aether than he'd expected. At first, all he saw were colours covering everything around him. The ground was made of paved concrete and glowed a soft, dull orange. Looking upwards, Alaric saw the ingredients on the table scattered with different shades of yellow and orange, with very few bearing green hues.

He tried to make sense of everything through the colour schemes he was used to. 'Wouldn't orange be the worst and… hmm…'

A gentle nudge on his shoulder drew his attention. Besides, a silver-haired girl whispered, "I see you're using the ring."

Alaric whispered back, "I thought I'd see how much all of this cost in case we have to do it again later outside the demiplane."

This is what he told Lucy at the moment, but his reasons went beyond that. Troy was a walking pile of unlimited commercial potential, and Alaric needed to evaluate how much they could make at his current level. This ring was his best way of getting an estimate.

"That ring ranks items based on the Seven-Star system. One-star items will appear Orange, Two-Star items will appear Red, Three-Star Items will appear Green, Four-Star Items will be Blue, Five-Star items will appear Purple, Six-Star items will appear black… I've never seen a Seven-Star item, but the Matriarch always told me she found one, and it glowed a searing white. Though if you look closely, you should be able to see the number of stars popping up. It's slower that way, but it should help with the confusion."

Alaric did as he was told, and surely enough, the stars appeared on the different items he looked at. He looked at the ground… One star.

'Hmm, I thought for sure they would have used better materials for the plaza.'

Lucy followed his gaze and chuckled, "One star materials?"

Alaric nodded, "Yes. With all the explosions associated with alchemists, I'm surprised they went for one-star materials for the ground."

"That's because it's easier to just enchant the whole thing than to buy expensive bricks, you blockhead," LionHeart whispered sharply, "Now pay attention. Troy's about to knock their 'feathers' off."

'Feathers,' Alaric suppressed the laugh in his throat.

He looked up to see that Master Corv'ak had just finished his speech. Out of all the masters Alaric had met, he was perhaps the most talkative, regardless of his well-placed motives to inspire his students to strive yet remain disciplined. In a way, his approach felt counterproductive, 'Perhaps Eagles need more reminders than humans.'

[ Troy didn't have this kind of mentor and still ruptured his meridians. I tried being silent with Darth for a while, then I tried being loud. You know where that got me. In the end, I think all masters just want what's best for their students, even if it means constantly reminding them of the fundamentals. ] Sabre reasoned.

Alaric hummed in acknowledgement as a calm silence overtook the plaza, or at least that's what Alaric thought. The quiet only cranked up his hearing. While it was a bit distracting to hear malicious murmurs milling through the crowd, it wasn't enough to dull the resplendence of the blue flames Troy summoned with a snap of his fingers.

His floating cauldron, an opulent pale blue metal marvel made to look like a seashell, ranked at three stars. Without warning, it started shooting flames from the three nozzles at its top, warming up the surroundings as the inside grew hotter and hotter. The higher the temperature, the more effective it would be, according to what Alaric had read somewhere, or had he heard it from Finn?

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

In any case, he was watching Troy push the cauldron even further past what he'd seen the girl from earlier do. The flames coming out of the nozzle glowed brighter, and the cauldron hummed low like a siren underwater.

Troy then put a hand out and willed the liquid bases inside the basin to float out. Carefully, the stream travelled into the cauldron. Black smoke puffed out, and the cauldron shuddered. Sweat beaded Troy's forehead, his controlling hand tilting just a little for the black smoke to stop.

More of the bases went in, and soon enough, white steam was coming out of the nozzles as more of the bases went in. A few minutes in, the bases were completely gone from the basin, but this was only the start of the ritual.

Alaric saw ingredients going in. The tentacle of an octopus. An eyeball whose origin he had no idea about. Two beans that looked like they were made of fat. Five different types of leaves, a red bulbous fruit and a flower snapping with teeth growing on the inside of its convulsing petals(this one went in still alive and snapping).

The steam kept going, then the blue flames gained a green hue before cool mist spilt out the nozzle of the cauldron, settling down onto the table like a slithering contradiction. Ingredients now in, Troy swiped his hand and saw the small door into the cauldron close. The cauldron groaned and shook, spilling out even more green and blue mist, but Troy relented, now channelling the blue flames right back into the cauldron.

The blue seashell cauldron groaned even louder and started sucking aether from the air. This suction, however, was so powerful that it pulled Alaric right into LionHeart's back, plastering him against the indomitable protector like he was being assaulted by a tempest.

This time, it wasn't just him feeling the effects. While everyone else didn't fly off, they staggered.

"Everyone give him some distance," Master Corv'ak's voice boomed, forcing them all to clear out and give Troy space. Master Corv'ak's face was beaming, "This child refines like a master!"

Alaric didn't fully understand what was going on, but he was sure from the way the world bent towards the violent process that Troy was doing something out of the ordinary, even for something as simplistic as refining bases.

'Simplistic might not be the right word for all this,' he thought to himself, given he couldn't do what Troy was doing.

"You okay, Alaric?" LionHeart asked the boy plastered onto his back like a backpack.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Alaric sighed, but then the murmurs returned to his ears.

He heard voices in the crowd, 'When do you think his cauldron will blow?' 'I don't know. It should have blown by now. I made sure to dose that Blood Venus with enough mercury.'

Alaric looked back at Troy over his protector's shoulder with a gasp, "Get me closer to Troy."

LionHeart, not knowing what was happening, grabbed Alaric in his hands and carried him through the crowd till they stood behind a concentrating Troy. Alaric saw the boy, but saw no way to communicate without breaking his focus.

[ Sabre, can you get a message to his guardian through the In-Between? ] Alaric asked.

[ I'm not as skilled as Alia in doing that. ] She replied, only for a voice to interrupt them a second later.

[ What does he need? ] Alia's voice filtered into Alaric's mind.

She sounded hoarse, and the emotions that spilt into him for a second before she walled them off suggested she was still in anguish. Still, her determined expression left no room for discussion, so Sabre relayed Alaric's message, and she was gone.

A moment later, Troy yelled out through gritted teeth, "Alaric, I noticed the mercury and burnt it out. It will be just fine… hopefully."

Alaric chuckled, watching Troy struggle with the roaring cauldron. All at once, the suction vanished, and the cauldron's roaring simmered down. The small door snapped open, and a sparkling pale blue liquid spilt out, floating into three vials Troy had set aside on the table.

He then slowly let go of the flames, and they shot out of the nozzles noisily, simmering down slowly until the seashell marvel hummed no more. Troy collapsed on the ground, sweat dripping to the ground while he breathed heavily.

Master Corv'ak walked into his tent and returned with a snapping plant. Ignoring the plant's snapping teeth, he pried its jaws open and dipped his fingers in, pulling out what looked like a black liquid.

"Be careful, Master Corv'ak," Troy panted, "Mercury is a Two-Star poison."

"Two-Star poison is ineffective against a Diamond rank, and you did well to burn it out," the master casually replied and turned to his students, holding out his blackened fingers, "Who's responsible for this?"

Silence filled the plaza, punctuated by a few gasps, some dramatic while a few genuine, but Master Corv'ak was not in the mood for that silence. His aura was already starting to roll off his body in waves, hammering everyone around him to the ground. Breathing alone became hard in his presence.

"You all know the rules. We are all bound by them to settle our differences through duels in alchemy, and not to resort to petty humanly crimes."

'Wait, what? Humanly,' Alaric's eyes widened.

"If anyone here has a problem with this young man, then come on out and challenge him. If you're not confident enough to do that, then you are worthless and dishonourable," the man was seething.

"He's not even one of us," a boy argued.

"Yeah, he's a human. Why do we have to listen to the likes of him?" another argued.

"He doesn't belong here. No human has set foot in the demiplane for centuries. Why him?" another yelled out.

"SILENCE!!! You're all suspended until I get a list of the ones involved in this," Corv'ak boomed, "If I get as much as one alchemist practising in the plaza, I'll have your meridians clipped for a month, you hear me?"

The silence was deafening, and the oppressive aura of the Diamond Rank demihuman even more so. Alaric looked around and saw his friends on their knees, struggling against the aura of the Diamond Rank. For some reason, he was still standing, but that was probably because the Diamond Rank wasn't addressing him, as well as his Will as the Guardian Emperor.

In the silence that followed, a boy struggled to their feet, sweat beading his forehead. Two more students stood along with him, one carrying his comrade through the tyrannical pressure, "You need not punish everyone, Master. The mercury was our idea."

"Then don't you have something to say?" Master Corv'ak's voice was low, yet it carried the might of a giant.

"No, sir. We don't," they responded, drawing gasps and murmurs from everyone, "We will do everything you tell us, sir, but we'll never bow to a human. They are pests and not worthy of your precious time."

With that, the three students excused themselves from the plaza, leaving murmurs rippling through the crowd. There would be no challenge, and the plaza would continue to function as it normally did. But as the master's aura went back down, contained within the old man, the realisation of how deep the hatred for humanity ran within some of the Heaven-Crested Eagles became clear.

Alaric walked up to Master Corv'ak, curiosity burning inside him, "Why? Why do some of your kind hate us so much? Just before coming here, Rail'ak nearly drove a fist through my gut."

Corv'ak rubbed his temples at the boy's statement, "Don't speak that foolish prince's name so freely."

"So he's famous," LionHeart noted.

"Try infamous," Corv'ak snorted, "He's the reason behind all that hatred."