The Runic Alchemist

Neremis was left alone on the battlefield, facing the Beast God. The only reason he was spared was the sudden change in atmosphere. Dark, heavy clouds and racing winds proclaimed something very ominous for everyone present.

The Sea God was enraged.

Bright blue glowing solid water pillars landed from the sky, protecting Nimrel from all sides. Or perhaps it was the corpse of Neremis lying in Nimrel’s hands that was being protected. The Beast God had stopped attacking after the demise of Neremis at his hands.

Killing the Illuminator had already half completed his revenge. If only he had gotten Nimrel as well, it would have been perfect. But as they say, there are consequences for every action.

A humongous Levithan had covered the whole sky of Dawnstar. No creature in the world could be that big. But there it was. On the shadow-covered battlefield, individuals could only see the giant dark blue scales above their heads. Even the best of primordial gods, the once-in-a-generation fourth rankers, could not see where the leviathan’s head or tail was.

Only enormous dark blue coils of the serpentine creature.

Till that day, we primordial age gods often wondered why the five ancient gods did not show themselves on the mainland or live among their people. Today, we had the answer.

If they lived here, we wouldn’t be able to.

Even mountains must be like pebbles for such an enormous levithan.

“Go back to your lair, we will decide the matter there.”

The silence of the battlefield was shattered by a fearless voice – the Beast God.

In reply, a land-shaking roar echoed across the mainland, accompanied by a dark thunderstorm and a vengeful, furious downpour.

Drazhan left Nimrel alone and flew high above the dark clouds. The whole of the mainland was holding its breath; if these two gods started fighting, there would be nothing left in this world. The Beast God, fighting against mortals, had not shown even a fraction of his actual might.

The physical form was limiting for his boundless strength. As a god-level pugilist, especially a beastman, Drazhan could only truly unleash his might using his real form. This was known as the Calling of the Beast. However, he couldn’t even use it on the mainland; doing so would be disastrous for the average people, just like the Sea God’s presence.

The corpse of Nerenis, along with the blue pillar of water, was raised in the sky, never to be seen again by mortal eyes.

The dark clouds slowly opened up as the Sea God and Beast God moved far away from the mainland above the open sea. That one direction of the sky remained dark, with constant lightning bolts surrounding it. The storms and rain on the mainland did not stop either.

Seven days.

Those were the worst seven days the mainland had ever seen. Rivers flooded villages, the storm destroyed standing crop-fields, and even the kindest, peace-loving animals and mana beasts went on a rampage unheard of in history, destroying villages and towns alike. Boulder was fighting hordes of creatures every day. I distinctly remember those miserable seven days of relentless rain.

It was like the whole world was weeping for the deaths and destruction. I felt very worried for Kelmira and Harmon. And for all the thousand-plus dwarves trapped in Eldoris. The war had started abruptly, and only Eldoris was a safe place back then. All dwarves merchants, travellers, and explorers had gathered there over the years.

The world might be lost forever. The fear of that had made an awkward alliance between the countries of the mainland. The leaders of countries had returned to their homeland along with their surviving armies to save as many people as possible from nature’s vengeance.

Harmon told me Ruinweaver and Fallen Branch went back to help their people; their country had lost many good warriors. Concerned for our safety in a foreign land, Kelmira and Harmon went back with Star-Spring to Eldoris. Nimrel was the only one left standing from Dawnstar’s side. Faerunia still had enough transcendents back in their land to protect their people.

No one wanted to do anything with bruised and battered Nimrel. The man had lost too much. He begged for Star-Spring to heal his injured transcendents, but the elf queen refused. Because of the fear of the Sun God, Ruinweaver and she had left the god of music alive, but none wanted to have any sort of relationship with him anymore.

Surprising even Nimrel himself, it was Lightbringer who came to his aid. The two of them healed their injuries as best as they could and brought them all back to Dawnstar. As the transcendents received further healing, Lightbringer and Nimrel protected Dawnstar against the natural disaster.

By the evening of the seventh day, the storm had finally stopped, and the animals and mana beasts had returned to the deep forest. That night, the quite dark sky showed a trail of bright fire. Whatever or whoever it was, it fell on the shore of Ashkara. The entire mainland felt that loud crash.

Everyone figured that the end of the disaster and the fallen thing could not be just a simple coincidence.

Harmon said, The elf queen promised him and Kelmira that she would release our people if they accompanied her to Ashkara and helped her retrieve whatever it was that had fallen through the sky. Other than fighting Eldoris, this was their only choice; still, both Kelmira and Harmon agreed not to help if the thing was too powerful or disastrous for the mainland.

Just the three of them flew as fast as they could in the direction of the crash. Eldoris transcendents were still saving people from disasters to accompany their queen for such a task. The place could be dangerous, and the elf queen was very protective of her family.

Ruinweaver had no time to spare, and yet he was the first one present at the place of the crash when Harmon reached there. Soon after, even Nimrel and Lightbringer had arrived on the spot. Several other transcendents who could fly had also arrived from both Faerunia and the Beast Nation.

It was a deep crater where the crash had happened. And at the center of that was the Beast God, Drazhan Kaelvar Thalaras.

Did he lose the fight, or was it a tie? No one knew.

In his physical form, the Beast God lay there, full of wounds and barely breathing. A god, beaten to the inch of his life. Harmon said Drazhan was bleeding from several places. And the blood was bright golden. Divine in nature and full of the purest of mana, Harmon had ever sensed.

Wherever the blood flowed, massive trees and beautiful, regal mana beasts were being born. Needless to say, this caused the gathered individuals to start threatening each other and arguing over who would get to keep the divine blood. The transcendents of the beast nation rushed to their patron god, many of whom were direct descendants of the beast god himself. However, they could do nothing but worry for the life of their god.

At that time, one person suggested something that shocked all individuals gathered to their core. It was Lightbringer.

‘Why fight for the droplets of divine blood when we can kill him and become a god ourselves?’

That damaned abomination! I can’t prove it, but I know for sure that bastard was behind all of it. All the disasters the mainland went through, that damned Battleborn was always present to rip the benefits.

Lightbringer used Nimrel’s changed heart towards him after all that he had done for the Dawnstar and fueled his rage against the Beast God for killing Illuminator, his transcendent children, and Nerenis. Ruinweaver laughed aloud like a crazy man. Needless to say, he was all up for it.

For the elf queen and transcendents of Faerunia, Lightbringer used the excuse of power. His words were,

‘A second ranker can’t become a transcendent without killing a legendary rank creature. Centuries of primordial age, and no one has achieved a true godhood. What if the secret of that is to kill a true god? That would make sense. Only defeating another god makes one worthy to be one himself. Our gods would never reveal such a thing to us, fearing what we would become, always keeping us beneath their feet – to do as they say forever, to worship them for eternity.’

Harmon and Kelmira were against the idea. So were, obviously, the warriors of Beast Nation. But the rest were not rejecting the notion outright, seduced by the possibilities.

The sudden warning to the scions from their gods only fueled the fire. They were forbidden from touching the Beast God or his divine blood.

Older scions like Ruinweaver and Star-Spring had been alive for centuries now. They had crossed the door of the third to fourth rank a long time ago. All their levels were maxed out, so were their skill levels. They had spent years in dungeons, trying everything possible to ascend further.

The thought was subconsciously eating away at the heart of every scion. Were they being kept in the dark? Would they never become a true god themselves as long as they worshipped another?