The Way Ahead - Chapter 128: Fertile Grounds

Chapter 128: Fertile Grounds

The sheer idea of ‘correspondent’ objects made Edwin’s inner scientist want to jump up and down like a child. It was, in effect, a perfect conductor across arbitrary distances, able to transmit non-destructive energy perfectly by adding heat- or Attributes- in one location and withdrawing it in another. He’d need to figure out some way to replicate it alchemically once he was done with Niall…

Later, he promised himself, fighting off the urge to feel guilty about getting distracted while the lives of his friends were on the line. This was how he was saving them, no matter how little it might feel as such on occasion. And he needed to save them, because how else could he bear to see them after letting Kynigos die?

Focus.

Edwin’s mind raced. Okay, so Correspondences. That meant there was, essentially, a single drop of blood- it would have to be a drop, otherwise there wouldn’t be enough alchemical significance- being mirrored everywhere by the Skill.

It had to be two different Skills, wouldn’t it? Or even more? Or no, not really. If Niall had managed to make the thing alchemically, which Edwin could totally believe was possible, the guy was a master at life alchemy, then he could probably take a new basic Skill that linked all of his blood together and let him spread out.

If Niall had Regeneration of some sort, then perhaps that was how his infection spread, by ‘regenerating’ inside of new hosts? Or maybe…

Okay. He needed to focus. The exact mechanics of how Niall was doing what he was doing would be very useful in coming up with a cure, but without Alchemy constantly giving him new hints, he was just shooting blindly. He would have to do this the normal way, methodical experimentation. What did he already know from his tests?

Well, there had to be some level of self-defense mechanism inherent to the Skill, or else Edwin burning a single drop of the blood would propagate across everything and kill him the moment his blood took any amount of damage. Something which cut off the connection once it was harmed?

No, that feel quite right. But there had to be something.

He pulled out one of his vials of Niall’s blood, making a new container for study, spreading out a drop onto a microscope slide. A moment later, a pair of lenses made a makeshift microscope, and enabled him to take a closer look at the energies involved with his various sensory Skills, pushing Perception to its limits.

Ah. There it was.

The transfer bond wasn’t instantaneous but had a small amount of lag inherent to the transmission.

“And because the sympathy requires all the blood to be identical,” he muttered to himself, “If it becomes damaged then it’s broken from the gestalt, protecting the rest. At least, until the separated blood becomes identical once again.”

It was honestly a rather ingenious method of self-preservation for something that came out of apparently emergent properties. If he wanted to actually destroy Niall’s blood in its totality, he could use any odd drop he found, sure, but he’d need to do it in such a way that it wasn’t damaged until after it had resynced with the rest of the blood.

It was further complicated by the fact Niall had just utterly ludicrous regeneration, and if the destruction wasn’t total, he’d just come back.

Hmmm.

Based on all the tests Edwin could run, there wasn’t that much Health stored within each drop of blood. It made sense, really. Because Attributes- particularly Health- didn’t damage the blood, it might be a valid thing to be transferred, and then given the nature of how Attributes liked to spread out…

Niall may well not even have the Regeneration attribute! Or well no, the sort of healing that he did wasn’t something which Health did on its own. But the source of bottomless healing was probably siphoning off endless amounts of Health from whoever many hundreds of individuals he was parasitizing.

Regardless, both burning and poisoning wouldn’t work because of the nature of the Correspondence, Alchemical Dismantling and Refining had both failed… Could he maybe get Niall addicted to his cooking?

I need real answers here.

Maybe he could blow him up somehow? Could he somehow turn Niall’s blood explosive, then… no, that would just kill a lot of innocent people. And still had the same problem that using poison did. He… okay.

He was an alchemist, that meant he could do this all on his own. The answer was somewhere, all he needed to do was pry the secret out of the universe’s clawed grasp and use that fact to his benefit.

He would do this on his own. Putting aside the fact that nobody else was trustworthy, he needed to do this on his own. He didn’t have anyone that he could count on, now more than ever thanks to this stupid plague.

Anyone could turn out to be an actual enemy at any time, how could he make any plan which relied on any of them? He needed something which would work on its own. He needed to do this, and he needed to do it himself and alone. This was a surmountable problem, all it needed was the right solution to be found and then that would be that. Maybe some kind of poison, or magical attack. He could use his biology knowledge to figure out how to make a blood clotting attack?

What about evolving Stamina Manipulation? It wasn’t ideal, sure, but he would sooner live than be perfectly optimal with all of his Skills. It was too perfect for potentially dealing with a foe like Niall. The only hangup was of course that Stamina Manipulation was only just past level 30, so he’d have to borrow Skill Points from his future advancement, but… he could deal with that.

Not that it made figuring out what Path he might take which would be most useful for him any easier. None leapt out at him as being a silver bullet, but maybe he just wasn’t thinking about it in the right way? Perhaps one of the Healer or Medic Paths would give him Health Manipulation, which if it were offensive or worked on Niall might well be a good way to… Exsanguinate a lot of people, and probably not even kill Niall.

A small part of Edwin worried that Tara might have killed people with her constant face-stabbing of Niall, but there wasn’t much they could do about that. Also, there was no assurance that the Skill he got would even affect other people and not just himself, so no. A Skill evolution was not his way out here.

Hmmmm.

But maybe he didn’t need to worry about controlling Health?

Mana would probably be allowed through. It coexisted with his blood just fine after all. Maybe he could just allow a bit of mana into the blood gestalt, and see if he could then fry it? That might just work, actually. There were a lot of chemical products which wouldn’t be too compatible with life, if he could just change his mana into imitating one of them after Niall had already absorbed it…

Edwin picked up the ampule of Niall’s blood and brought Mana Infusion to bear. Immediately, it started fighting back against him, just like when he’d tried to Refine it. Well no, not quite the same. It didn’t feel so much like a force coming from the blood, just a limit to his Skill of some form. It couldn’t Infuse living stuff, perhaps? Or maybe it was something to do with the way magic preferred to affect entire objects, Niall’s discontinuity interfered somehow?

Regardless, a few more minutes of trying without the slightest change in status indicated that it was perhaps a fruitless endeavor, and he changed to just using straight magic to try and make an impact. A thin strand of mana threaded out from Edwin’s fingers, a trickle of saline, ready to be accepted into Niall’s blood as sure as any rehydration pack in an IV.

There was a moment of suspense as it beaded around the vial of blood, then…

It went in, and Edwin sighed in relief. Okay, now all that he needed was to twist his spell into something a bit more hostile, and everything would be just fine.

Who even needed other people? Edwin had everything he needed at his fingertips. He’d been taught, yes, but it was his own skill, not that of Rillah’s, that was being proven now. He was useful, he had a place, and now was seriously not the time for him to sort out whatever emotional baggage he was bringing into this, for all that it kept distracting him.

Honestly. It was stuff like this that led him to corralling all of his emotions into neat little boxes, and he’d have to spend some time repeating the feat once he had a chance.

But for now, this was a simple enough task. The body was delicate enough that a simple change in acidity would result in catastrophic damage, and even supernatural regeneration was unlikely to help someone survive magical concentrated hydrochloric acid in spell form being injected into their bloodstream.

So that’s just what Edwin did.

Niall’s blood seemed to veritably screech, Edwin’s samples of the substance vibrating soundlessly as he gathered them together, stowing them in his pouch. He kept a thread of mana pouring into the vial as he took off into the air, returning to the city.

It wasn’t a pretty sight.

People were on the ground, holding their heads and shaking as Niall’s skill ravaged their bodies. About the only person who wasn’t on the ground was a familiar-looking figure in silver armor, striding through part of the more densely-packed layer of bodies closer to the town square. Blood drenched the clothes of most of the people around her, but there was no obvious source.

Seemed like the perfect time to say hi.

“Tara.”

“Adventurer Edwin,” she tiredly greeted, gesturing at the twitching piles of bodies around her, “Was this you?”

He gave a curt nod, “I’m feeding some corrosive mana into the overall blood gestalt, which-”

“Don’t care. Keep it up.”

“What happened?”

“The bastard gained the ability to control multiple people at once, and said individuals gain his regeneration. It has been quite the battle, ensuring not so much as a drop of blood touches my armor. Are you coming closer to a solution?”

“I’m working on it.”

“Do not tarry. This is a perilous situation.”

With another nod, he took off once again to perch on one of the surrounding rooftops. He wanted to keep an eye on the infected with this test.

Edwin channeled his mana as fast as he could, creating and concentrating an extra-potent shot of mana acid. Hopefully, the additional shock would overwhelm Niall’s passive regeneration and finally kill him…. Without killing everyone he was connected to?

Edwin steeled himself. Niall had already killed everyone he’d poisoned with his Skill. Edwin was just.. halting the spread. Besides, if anyone were to survive, it would surely be Rillah. And she was with Yathal, so she could heal him.

Except there’s no way she has more Health than the guards, and definitely not as much as Niall is bound to…

Edwin took a deep breath to steady his nerves, and pushed the spell through.

The effects were immediate. Whereas before the liquid shook, now it began to almost blacken and burn, dissociating and falling apart. It congealed and fractured, becoming solid and then turning to ash.

Best of all, the people down below weren’t dead. Sure, they were all on the ground writhing and screaming in pain, and the Skill controlling them had turned the power of blackened, congealed blood, but they were alive!

He did it! He’d… won?

As he watched, comparing with his own samples of Niall’s blood for confirmation, vitality rushed back into crimson liquid, ash revitalizing itself and returning to full health.

He could even feel a corresponding swell in the skill/magic emanating from the fluid. It felt like an infection rushing back into a wound, of rot setting in with death that was nonetheless still alive, before returning to the normal blood and viscera that he associated with Niall.

The people down below, now free of Edwin’s magical assault, began to return to their feet, looking around in confusion until Niall’s puppeteering Skill hijacked their bodies once again.

Edwin dropped to his knees in despair.

The alchemist really was immortal. Destroying his blood utterly hadn’t done it. How the Blight was he supposed to kill something that could come back from the dead on top of everything else?

I just need time.

As Niall seized control over the puppets below, Edwin tried to feed more acidic mana into his vial of blood, only to have its own energies rip apart the spell construct. It seemed as though Niall had a sort of immune system against magic, and all that Edwin’s attack had done was give him one fewer tool in his alchemy kit.

Maybe… maybe Edwin couldn’t do this.

He also really needed to run, given the assault team of Avior actively heading his way.

Edwin eventually managed to escape from his pursuers after a harrowing airborne chase, but now he was once again holed up in Niall’s laboratory. Perhaps it wasn’t the best place to go, but what else was he to do? It was at least moderately reinforced and had a decently well-stocked alchemy lab. Nobody had seen him enter, and Yathal was gone along with Kynigos’ body and the random Cobbler that Niall had first possessed, so the blood alchemist didn’t have any easy spies to find out where he did go. Plus, it had Rillah, and while decidedly irrational… he didn’t know, not really. It was an irrational desire. He should just leave…

No, he couldn’t. He just couldn’t. It was stupid, it was irrational, and why did his emotions demand it so strongly.

This was exactly the sort of behavior which had gotten him to try and lock away all of his feelings in the first place. But regardless of the foolishness of attachment to Rillah, he would…

I will not let my emotions get in my way.

He would need help, and he refused to allow pride to interfere with that simple fact. He had a better sense of Niall’s powers and limitations, and after another attempted magical attack- this time with simulated firevine oil, to much the same results as simulated acid- Alchemy and Ritual Intuition were providing him a possible solution.

He just couldn’t do it on his own. It was stupid, just utterly idiotic of him to ever think he could do anything on his own. His failure with Kynigos was testament enough of that. It was just raw pride and desperation speaking when he thought he could solve the Niall problem without any aid. He wasn’t an alchemist, just a pretender who couldn’t stand on his own, and that meant he… well, he needed help.

“Inion?” he called out to the air, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lashed out like that. I do need you. Can you still hear me?”

He stared at the air in hope for a minute, before sighing. Of course she wouldn’t come back that easily, he’d verbally slapped her and… banished her? He wasn’t entirely clear on what had happened, actually. But regret wasn’t enough to undo it, wasn’t able to take back what he’d said, what he’d done. All that it did seem to do was make him blush, his skin heating up as it flushed red.

Edwin pulled up a chair and dropped sadly into it, curling into a ball. The fey had been a near-constant companion for years now, and thanks to him… now she was gone. Why did he have to be so awful with people? She’d never once expressed anything but care and concern for him, but he’d just refused her overtures of friendship every time, and why? Because she was a fey? She deserved better than that, so maybe it was best that she wasn’t around anymore.

Inion, he could trust. She didn’t even have blood, so Niall wouldn’t be able to influence her… probably. Not that it mattered, because he’d wrecked any chance he might have for help.

And so, his eyes landed back on Rillah.

She was an unknown on every possible level. He’d only known her for a few months, was probably using him for her own ends, and was undoubtedly infected by Niall. He didn’t know if she’d help him. He doubted that she would trust him enough for it to work, he just needed to try.

That was what it came down to, wasn’t it?

Talking was the superpower of the human race. It was what made science great, what civilization was built on. Taking that first step, the initial extension of trust.

You’re just stalling, he accused himself. But of course he was. This was terrifying. Give him a spider to fight, dwarves to outwit any day. But this? Every part of him screamed that this was a bad idea, that there was no way she would be willing to help, that she would trust him enough, that…

I refuse to let my emotions control me. I refuse to let myself sit here feeling sorry for myself. I refuse to let this fear keep me constrained. I refuse to let Niall win.

I refuse to make myself lose.

I refuse to let my emotions control me.

I.

Refuse.

Edwin opened his eyes. He had work to do.

It was surprisingly simple to rouse Rillah with his Alchemy skill leading the way. One of the herbs Niall had in his lab created a particularly pungent odor when ground, and by mixing it with some talsanenris oil, he could create an invigorating smelling salt, and when he tested it?

“Wha- Edwin! What’s going on?”

“Niall. Blood. You were infected. I had to knock you out. Can you run Cleanse Self at a low enough power to wake yourself up from the sleeping potion, and to make it harder for Niall to take you over, but low enough that you don’t burn out your connection to him?”

“Of course.”

“Wait, no questions?”

“You know what you’re doing, and I trust you. You tell me to keep a connection to the blood alchemist, I’ll do it.”

“No, no. You need to challenge me, come up with a better way.”

“I won’t, though. And the arguing would just make it go badly. What’s the plan?”

“No. You can’t just… go along with this. My idea will hurt. A lot. You might die. I might die. I don’t even know if it’ll work!”

“Edwin. Edwin. Hey, look at me, okay? I don’t believe that I will. I trust you, Edwin. You’re phenomenally talented, and if I were to entrust my life to anyone? It would be you.”

“You’re just… you’re just saying that. Nobody,” he looked away, blinking away some annoying water in his eyes, “Nobody could actually trust me like that. Nobody should trust me like that.”

Dangit, emotions!

“But I do.”

“I killed Kynigos,” he blurted out, “I thought I knew what I was doing, but I just screwed up, and now he’s dead because of me. I mean, he was dying anyway, but it was still my mistake that killed him.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“Don’t worry about that? How can I not worry about it? I don’t know what to do differently this time, I haven’t tried anything, I just…” he sighed, “Look, I care about you. Not that I didn’t care about Kynigos, for all that I didn’t do a very good job of getting to know him, and I really should have pushed to really interact with the two of them and I barely know what they did, and I’m getting distracted, sorry. I just can’t, I don’t know how, I should have…”

“Edwin, it’s not your fault.”

“I know. I know it’s not my fault. It’s Niall’s fault that Kynigos died, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling bad about the fact I was the one who actually killed him. Everyone I touch just…” he sighed, “No. That’s not true. I know it’s not true, but… Look at you. You woke up, and within ten seconds are fine with a plan you don’t even know about, that might cause your death. How? And now you know that I’m a failure, that my warning I might kill you is real, and you’re still fine with it. What did I do to deserve this?”

Rillah reached out to rest her hand on his shoulder, but a gentle nudge with Unbound Tether prevented the potential infection from Niall. Fortunately, she seemed to understand and took a half-step back before continuing.

“I told you, I trust you. You’re the best alchemist I’ve met. You made the outright impossible real not two months ago, you can do it again.”

“Really? Is that really how you see me? Now I have to deal with that pressure too.”

“Of course not! Ha! Your face! You actually believed that you could amount to anything, you little weakling? Look at you, falling apart over nothing.”

The words bit, deeply. But Edwin closed his eyes and breathed deeply, “Shut up, Niall.”

It was concerning, that he couldn’t see the active takeover Skill dominating every part of Rillah’s body, but he knew that the words weren’t hers. They couldn’t be hers.

“What, you think he’s controlling me? Please, I can fight off that guy anytime. He’s good, but I’m better.”

“Niall, if you don’t give her control back right now, I will come up with something else to inject into your Skill that’s designed specifically to cause you maximum suffering. Let. Her. Go.”

“You wouldn’t. You’d just hurt your little friends too. Oh, I mean that it wouldn’t make a difference, because he’s not in control.”

“Weren’t you listening? Apparently you aren’t my friend, so…” Edwin held up his vial of Niall’s blood, allowing faint strands of mana to spark between his other fingers. After a few more moments of staring the other down, Rillah slumped.

“Thank you. And I’m sorry for all of that.”

“How much since you woke up was he in control for?”

“All of it,” she whispered.

“…Oh.” What more was there to say? This happened every time he tried to open up with people, so why did he expect anything else?

“I’m sorry, Edwin, he just…”

“So none of it was true?”

“None of it. I tolerate you, but the idea that I might ever trust you? No. Stay far, far away after you murdered Kynigos. Oh, poor Yathal, he needs comfort, which you just can’t give. You’re unreliable and untrustworthy, more trouble than you’re worth.”

Something broke inside of Edwin, and almost on instinct, he snapped his hand up. Molai plus wind essence, coupled with a bit of phosphorus, instinctively came together in his mana pool, a mote of silence darting out and striking Rillah’s face. It absorbed all the normal vibrations her voicebox would have made, rendering her temporarily mute. He needed a moment.

It didn’t quite ring true, but that might well have been wishful thinking. How else was he supposed to react to someone almost-but-not-fully a friend confirming every deep concern he’d ever had about them? Heck, it was almost word-for-word what Bob had said, and…

“No,” he shook his head, fighting off the crushing weight of the idea that everything he’d just said had been to Niall, that none of it had been genuine, that it was all… a mockery, presenting a false face, trying to raise his spirits before crushing them utterly.

“-thetic little spell,” Rillah broke free of the hasty construction with a jerk of her head.

For whatever reason, that single action completely shattered the illusion. His heart still lay in shambles, but for all that he felt dead inside, for all that he wanted to just curl up and die, he refused. With a single bark of laughter, he turned to the impostor with a fire in his eyes, “No.”

“What do you mean, no? He was in control-”

“For about the last five minutes. This is a lie. You are a lie. I won’t,” he closed his eyes, “I refuse to listen to lies anymore. Yours, anyone else’s, mine. All of it was a lie. But now I’m going to tell you something very, very true:

“I am Edwin Karl Maxlin, and you will stop hurting my friends.”

He almost kept going, threatening to call down all the wrath of alchemy and science, but before he could, his enemy responded.

Niall-Rillah’s eyes glowered with hate, “Make me.”

In response, Edwin unleashed Unbound Tether at full strength, blasting Rillah across the room and pinning her to the far wall. A half-step with Longstrider brought them within arm’s reach, and Edwin called deep within himself for a way to disrupt Niall, a half-formed trick turned into a plan. It was just barely out of reach, but he could probably…

There was the sensation of someone grabbing his hands, and his eyes shot open in surprise.

Edwin’s skin grew hot, and mana veritably poured from him at a rate he’d never experienced before. It soaked into Rillah’s mana like water to a sponge, and he used the temporarily superb grasp he had on his mana to twist it all into Talsanenris-equivalent. The rush of life energy empowered every cell in Rillah’s body, from head to toe and from skin to blood. It was enough that even though the magic was beneficial, it wrought a momentary change in Rillah’s blood and broke its Correspondence to Niall’s skill.

The half-elf collapsed, her limbs folding like a puppet with its strings cut. As Edwin watched, Niall’s skill reestablished its connection and attempted to regain control over Rillah, but a churning use of Cleanse Self kept the possession at bay.

Rillah coughed on the floor, “You have three names?”

Edwin laughed, the tension broken in an instant, “What, do you guys not have middle names here or something?”

“No,” she kept coughing, a hacking, wheezing sound that made Edwin flinch. “We don’t. Where did you say you were from?”

“I’ll… tell you later.”

“Once we take care of that man?”

“Sure. Remind me.”

“Gladly,” she smiled, and Edwin didn’t have it within himself to keep his hopes in check.

“How much of that was you, and how much was…”

“Him? Ugh. You know, I try to keep a generally decent outlook, but I’m not a fan of that. At least he isn’t a creep about it, just, oh, trying to crush a friend’s spirits with my own voice. I will end him.” her eyes grew hard, “He wasted no time in trying to break you, all of what I said about trusting and admiring you? That was all me. So, friend, what’s the plan?” her smile was weak but undeniably aimed at him…

I hope- Oh, shut up already.

“I wish I had something better, but here’s the deal. Niall is currently only a single drop of blood, just mirrored endlessly. To actually take him out, we need to somehow burn that drop of blood.”

“That doesn’t seem too hard, if it’s all the same blood.”

“It’s a bit trickier than that. See…”

Edwin gave an abbreviated version of what was going on, only needing to rephrase things twice due to him delving too deeply into the technical specifics. Progress!

“But that whole rebirth through rot thing? Yeah, that’s where you come in, and I wish Inion was able to…”

He trailed off, the memory of helping hands assisting him, allowing him to overpower his normal limits reminding him of something from a very, very long time ago.

“Inion?” he asked, waving off Rillah’s confused look. He wasn’t talking to her, but feeling inside his own magic. There. A bit of familiar resonance, trying and failing to connect to the outside.

Edwin called that drop of mana to his fingertips, twisting it such that it more closely resembled Inion’s. A bit of shade, a bit more water, and-

It took a life of its own, mana once again pouring from his body in a way that left him oddly drained and slightly lightheaded. In front of him, a very familiar form took shape drifting midair.

“Hi, Inion. I’m sorry.”

“Oh you are now? That’s all you have to say to me?”

“Well, I’m going to choose to ignore the fact you lied to me and kept yourself bonded to me instead of changing to the Rhothos like you said you would because this isn’t the time for that, but yes. I’m sorry.”

“Well, that’s fair. But I must say, I expected you to be more mad about that.”

“I have had a very long day, and about all the emotion I can muster is aimed at Niall. Besides, I need your help.”

Rillah looked at Inion warily, but didn’t protest.

The fey shrugged, “How could I say no?”

“Great. Since I guess everyone is here?” Edwin half-expected Tara or Lefi to materialize from thin air, to really complete the ‘friendship is magic’ motif he suddenly had going on, but whether fortunately or unfortunately no such thing occurred, “Here’s the plan…”

Edwin made a small incision in Rillah’s arm, pulling out a fresh drop of blood for his experiments. With that in-hand, he took molai as a buffer, synbaline as a numbing agent, talsanenris to keep the reaction going, an experimental blend of firevine and magnesium for power, the former of which was very carefully stripped of all nonmagical volatility. Without a strong enough ignition source, it wouldn’t so much as be warm. But once it was exposed to magic, it would ignite in an instant.

The actual brewing was something of a blur, Alchemy giving Edwin an entirely second set of instincts for the perfect amount of time to heat, to cool, to stir, to distill. At some point, a huge crowd of people broke into the workshop, but Rillah used wind and Inion used water to push them back. Tara might have also come around at some point- it would explain the massive holes in the structure around them at least.

By the time Edwin was out of his fugue state, the bubbling, fluorescent potion in his hand, he was hovering a few hundred feet above the ground in a bubble sustained by Inion. Around them, Tara was engaging with a flock of avior as a blur of silver, barely keeping up with the dozens of individuals trying to breach their literal bubble for all that she sent them to the ground like bloody comets.

Ultimately, Niall’s magical signature was fundamentally one of life, as was so common in Rhothos. It made it particularly robust and liable to return from anything, which was why even under near-total annihilation it could absorb Health so effectively to regenerate, it was just a fundamental aspect of the Skill, or person, or whatever. It was muddled enough he couldn’t be certain, but the end result was the same. Niall was a tenacious weed that would just keep sprouting so long as the soil was fertile.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t salt the metaphorical earth with what they had. Edwin’s magic wasn’t sufficiently aligned with life for anything he did to be… survivable, nor was it a proper counter. His potions didn’t destroy life, they were meant to uplift and empower.

Who would have ever thought that not including pollution in his magical ideal of potions might some day harm him?

Regardless, that left his al- friends. His friends. They had much the opposite problem. Inion’s magic was that of an eternal spring positively bursting with life, while Rillah was the fresh sprouts popping up shortly after a spring rain. Both could only enhance growth, not stifle it. Even if it had been autumn, Rillah’s magic was still too focused on wind and not enough on decay.

With a nod of confirmation from Edwin, Rillah got them started by channeling Calming Touch into her own blood. As soon as the effect transmitted itself to the samples Edwin had, Inion brought her healing magic to bear as well. It veritably sang to Edwin, impressions of a fresh and clear brook washing away all impurities as she bathed the tranquilized blood in it.

Then a blood-red vein pulsed along her neck, and Niall was back.

They couldn’t cleanse Rillah yet, her connection to Niall was too important. All they could do was hope that she would be able to fight him off without having to resort to full-strength Cleanse Self. Edwin took a deep breath and calmed himself. This might actually work out better than their original idea.

“Oohh. You’re so clever, aren’t you? What, do you think if you heal me then I’ll let you live? That you little weaklings can hide in your little bubble and just get away with all of this? You’re leaving all those people to die as you run away with your claws wrapped tight. You and your little friends have your days numbered, and your time is already up.”

“Stick to the plan,” he told Inion, “It’s not that different this way. Drop me and get going.”

With a deep breath, he reached out and grasped Niall’s hand. Instantly, he felt the rush of blood through his hand, and Rillah staggered away. She grabbed the potion from his hand and smoothly injected it into her arm, shuddering.

Meanwhile, Edwin felt the absolutely skin-crawling sensation of Niall’s blood creeping inside of him, seizing up his muscles and paralyzing him. His friends jetted away, Inion looking forlornly at him as he began to fall to the streets below.

“What a weakling. What’s the matter, can’t fight me off now that your friends aren’t helping you?” Edwin’s mouth moved of its own volition, his own voice alien to his ears.

You know what? Yep. I am weak. It’s just me against the entire world, with nothing but a chemistry set to protect me. I’ve got no fighting Skills to speak of, nothing to protect me, just my wits. But do you know what the difference between an alchemist and a scientist is?

“I assume you’re about to spout some pathetic drivel about the value of friendship.”

Nah. Nothing quite so cliché, for all that friends are nice. But an alchemist is an island, one overwhelming presence taking on the world all on their lonesome. Quite impressive, and they can break the rules of the universe as they see fit. But they’re still only one person. They can be wrong, they can be mistaken, they can fail. But when a scientist fails? They have countless people supporting them, checking them, helping them. Each one provides valuable insight and skills that a single person could never have.

They would never be able to fully flush out Niall’s life-presence. It was too persistent, too all-pervasive to counter with a bunch of similar types of magic to deal with. There was no way they could get rid of rot, not truly.

But what they could do was replace it. Burn down the old, then sweep into the fertile grounds left with something less harmful and more wholesome.

Simply put, you’re being replaced.

Overcharge.

Overcharge.

Overcharge.

Overcharge.

OVERCHARGE.

Edwin blacked out as the raw magic flooded his veins.