The Newt and Demon

Theo stood watch idly as the others formed a plan. He was watching the various monsters outside the stealth bubble when he overheard part of a conversation. At first, he thought Tresk's idea about Frank was a whim, but the more they spoke, the more it seemed they were planning to actually get onto the creature.

"Pardon," Theo said. "Did you just say we're going to jump on its back?"

“Tresk scouted a fair amount of his dungeon," Aarok said, folding his arms. "And it seems like the most logical place for the core to be, inside the giant whale thing."

Theo pinched the bridge of his nose and released a heavy sigh. "The most logical thing," he said, "is that the dungeon core is on or inside a gigantic flying goop monster."

"Well, it isn't unfounded," Xol’sa said, joining the conversation. "My dungeon engineer class gives me vague information about where the core might be, and the giant goo monster gives me the strongest signal."

Theo clicked his tongue, poking his head out from under the covers. He could see the creature flying around in the sky above. Although it was dimly lit, it stood out against the darkness of the sky, somehow catching what little light there was. The monster was roughly the size of a city, or larger. It was hard to tell at this distance. But he wasn't sure if he agreed with the assessment.

Since this wasn't Theo's rodeo, he shrugged. What more could he do than offer his concerns? The best he could do was to keep the others safe as they went.

"So here's the skinny," Tresk said. "These islands are like small stepping stones for us to gain altitude. We're going to move as a group to the top and then wait for Frank to pass by."

This was a plan only broken tuskers could conceive, and Theo didn't know if he was angry about it. If the party were smaller, he would have absolutely no complaints. But with so many people to protect at once, he wasn't sure how well they would do. But he still hadn't used his barrier magic to protect them, so one insane plan didn't seem too far-fetched. He waited for the party to be prepared. Tresk vanished into the shadows and scouted their path ahead. Half an hour later, she returned, giving a thumbs-up and confirming that she had a straight route to the highest floating island.

"Same as before," Aarok announced. "Keep your senses open, Theo. I don't want any surprises as we ascend."

Something about the design of these floating islands seemed intentional. It appeared as though somebody had just torn chunks from the land and allowed them to float there in place. But there was logic to the way they were arranged. Between each island, there seemed to be either a stone ramp or roots connecting them. Whether that held them in place, the alchemists couldn't say. But as they ascended the first ramp and set foot on the first floating island, they felt as though this might have been easy.

"Pause," Theo said, gaining the attention of the commanders who relayed his order. "Frank's going to approach very closely and nudge one island, so everyone should brace."

The adventurers hit the ground and grabbed handfuls of dirt. Theo watched as Tess wrapped her arms around a rock and nodded to him with unexpected fervency. As predicted, about a minute later, Frank came too close to the island. He nudged an above island, triggering a chain reaction. The connected islands shook, and the resulting earthquake sent many adventurers tumbling to the ground. But no one was sent over the edge, as he had foreseen in his vision.

"Just a minute," Theo said. "I think Frank can sense us, and he's not happy about our ascent."

The group resumed traveling once the creature settled down. The plan was to avoid as many monsters as possible on the way to the top. However, some inevitable fighting occurred on the second floating island. A group of flying, bird-like monsters waited near the ramp to the next island, and the group had no choice but to engage them. It was nice to see Sarisa and Rowan finally in combat.

Since Sarisa's class allowed her to take many hits with her tower shield, she found herself on the front lines, drawing the monsters' ire and keeping everyone else safe. That left things clear for everyone else to chop down the bird monsters and clear the path. But Theo noticed how the sky whale reacted to monsters dying. It seemed to enliven the creature, allowing it to float around the sky with more ease.

But the monster's attacks between islands weren't what concerned Theo most. Most concerning was Frank's scale as they ascended. It became clear exactly how large this monster was. Since they were fairly certain the dungeon pulled from existing things, the alchemists couldn't help but think that somewhere in the world, this monster could exist, waiting to be released. He had certainly seen strange things, but nothing on this scale.

That's when it hit him. As the group was walking along one island, high above the ground, Theo pulled Aarok aside.

"I'm almost certain that's an ascendant beast," Theo said. His Wisdom of the Soul message claimed he couldn't determine it one way or the other, although the monster's size certainly pointed in that direction.

"Right, right," Aarok said. "Remind me, what does that mean?"

"To put it plainly," Theo said, "the beast is on the verge of godhood, or at least candidacy for godhood."

"Oh, damn. Really? Maybe we should rethink the plan."

"We're already halfway there," Theo said. "We may as well go through with it. I just wanted you to be aware that we were looking at something far more power than we previously thought."

"The plan isn't to fight it," Aarok said, nodding to himself as though assuring himself of his plan. "We just need to get on its back and find the dungeon core."

This might have been the most daring plan Aarok had ever come up with. Theo was still concerned about the safety of the people here, but he trusted them to be smart enough. And if they weren’t very smart, he could do his best to intervene and save their butts.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Several hours of climbing later and the group approached the highest of the islands. The landscape below them stretched out as one endless smear of gray. It was hard to believe the size of the dungeon’s interior. In the distance, Theo could see the remnants of towns, cliffs, and even half-ruined walls of unknowable cities. Every new landscape feature he noticed was another brushstroke of nonsense to add to the pile. The alchemist flinched as he saw something large enter his future sight.

Theo reflexively invoked his Defense ward, channeling it instead of his normal ward mode. A willpower-fueled barrier erupted around them, covering the large island and draining his mana away. This drew the attention of the others—particularly Aarok—who looked back at him with concern. A few breaths later and the alchemist felt something massive impact his barrier. But it wasn’t Frank. He still had eyes on the whale far in the distance.

“What was that?” Zarali asked, fear staining her voice.

“Holy moly!” Tresk shouted, jumping with excitement. Her daggers were in her hands before anyone could stop her. But she didn’t surge forward, instead locking her vision toward the edge of the island. “Did anyone else see that?”

“I saw it,” one elf spoke up. Theo didn’t recognize him, but there were so many elves in Broken Tusk nowadays. “But I don’t trust my eyes.”

“A big ol’ shadow dragon!” Tresk shouted. “He was kinda invisible, but not really. Well, he wasn’t invisible for a blink after he hit your shield. Permission to stab, sir.”

“Permission denied,” Aarok grumbled.

Theo felt another thump against his barrier. This time it felt more like an inquisitive attack, rather than one meant to inflict real damage. He balanced his concentration between maintaining the barrier, and watching the monster’s attacks. While he hadn’t seen the dragon they were talking about, he wouldn’t risk it. The beast beating against his barrier certainly felt like a dragon.

“I can attempt a spell to reveal the monster, but it may draw unwanted attention,” Xol’sa said. “Or perhaps I should just teach the spell to Theo, since he has seen fit to steal the stage from everyone else.”

“Let’s not risk it. How long can you hold the barrier, Theo?” Aarok asked.

“Literally forever,” Theo said with a shrug. “This isn’t even the strong version.”

“Right… Tresk, are you certain Frank swoops below this island?” Aarok asked.

“I saw him do it a few times, so yeah,” Tresk said. “Although perhaps we should consider a trigger condition. He seems to react to the stuff we do while within the dungeon.”

So the plan was hair-brained. Theo should’ve expected it, but whatever. While he could support his claim about holding the barrier up forever, that required a decent amount of focus. Of course, that didn’t take care of the invisible dragon outside of the shield. It slammed against the edge once again as though probing for a weakness. While Frank seemed uninterested in moving lower, the probing dragon got faster. Or it brought a friend.

“Are there two dragons?” Theo asked, interrupting the conversation around him.

“What?” Tresk asked, narrowing her eyes to the barrier’s edge. “Oh, crap. Two dragons.”

“We need to kill the dragons,” Aarok said. “How big are they?”

“Bigger than a house cat, smaller than a whale,” Tresk said.

“About the size of a large karatan,” a random elf said. “So, fairly small.”

Since karatan were the size of a very large cow, that was truly tiny for a dragon. Conversation broke out amongst the commanders about how unthreatening a dragon of that size was. They hatched a plan to battle the monsters outside of Theo’s barrier. At least he didn’t have to do anything. A team stepped out of his range and waited for the inevitable strike.

It was interesting to watch the tactics Aarok had developed over his time leading the Adventurer’s Guild. Sarisa took the lead, swinging her shield and absorbing a hit when the first monster attacked. Theo got his first good look at the monster. It was a mini-dragon with four legs and a set of powerful wings. The beast’s body seemed to be made of pure shadows and it was wreathed in black smoke. When the monster landed its first hit, Sarisa vanished and reappeared behind it. Rowan released an attack that bound it in shadowy chains while Xol’sa drew a line of shifting colors over its body.

The fight happened quickly. As a team, Aarok’s trained soldiers moved in to finish off the first monster as the second attacked. Had Sarisa been running off to train on her own? Theo couldn’t remember her fighting this well. Their coordination was admirable. Perhaps this wouldn’t go as poorly as he expected.

“Above!” Theo shouted.

Sarisa didn’t hesitate. She rotated her large shield, absorbing an attack from another stealthed monster. When the fighting was finally over, five of the shadow dragons were on the ground. Theo smiled when he saw Tresk harvesting parts that would serve as reagents. A dragon’s bones were especially potent for that, but he suspected she would just feed them to Alex. Too bad the dragon-goose couldn’t come for fear of her size messing up the plan.

“Take a minute to recover,” Aarok ordered. “Frank stirs. If Tresk is right, he’ll swoop down soon enough.”

Theo looked up to spot the giant whale-thing. By his estimation, the creature was already swooping. It was just too massive to tell when it was moving. He was reminded of the time Qavell was drifting across the sky in the distance. With objects so massive, it never appeared as though they were moving.

“This reminds me of the boro’tal,” Theo said, looking up at the impossibly large monster. “Why would such a large creature exist out in the world.”

“I’ve never read about something like this,” Zarali said. “You should consider that this might not be something from our world.”

The use of the phrase ‘our world’ made Theo smile, but she had a good point. He had come from another world, as had the dronon. There might’ve been a few other races that came from different planets, and it made sense that they would’ve had their own ecology. A massive gust of wind broke him out of his concentration. It was tinged with a flavor of magic he couldn’t recognize, but Xol’sa was quick to update him.

“Necromancy,” he said, clicking his tongue. “Maybe something adjacent?”

“Death magic,” Zarali corrected. “I believe the monster might be casting a death-aligned spell.”

“Of course, the similarities between the two schools are many,” Xol’sa said. “If you consider the base structure of Death magic and compare it to rote Necromantic magic, you’ll find most of the structures run throughout.”

“This all depends on the casting method, dear,” Zarali said. “Spellsinging is a whole different beast.”

“Well, if we’re going to consider all modes—”

“Hey, did you guys just say Death magic?” Theo asked. “I’m thinking we should be more concerned about that. What the hell is Death magic?”

“Magic that kills you,” Xol’sa said.

“Right, you should make a ward to protect us,” Zarali said, pointing at Theo.

“Cool, I’ll just pull that out of my butt. Hey, Tresk, can you help me pull a magical spell right out of my butt?”

“Coming, boss!” Tresk said, trundling over. “Just right up in there?”

“Oh, you’re so crude,” Zarali said with a sigh. “Come, let me teach you the array for some basic Death magic and you can craft us a ward.”

“Why do you even know Death magic!?”