Grand Saint Alloy

The mountains burned. Viral passed through irradiated towns that burned at his approach. They were all vacated, the lords of these lands getting the people out of his way. He walked straight to the edge of the world, letting his aura flare out, filled with steel and flame, scouring his path clean of life.

Once a newly ascended legend had tried to stop him. Forgetting that just because he did not rampage like the beast master, did not mean that he couldn’t. He had paid special attention to that civilization, leaving them as nothing more than a memory.

An anomaly occurred. Viral had been locked onto Vulcan’s essence signature, as the force of gravity was not typically one achieved on this plane. The signal disappeared, guttering out like a candle in the rain. Maybe it was not gone, but the signature had shifted enough that the tracking method he had devised would no longer work.

At least he knew where his last known location was. Speaking of the location, something was watching him, something that was not aware of how to hide its gaze. He contemplated simply rushing over or shooting it from a distance, but antagonizing the Silent Nation was not in his best interests. So he settled for scaring the foolish creature.

He smirked, “Hello little elemental.”

For the past few days, The Lord of the Underworld had been feeling uneasy. It was not unease due to losing his army, he could always rebuild it, that’s what the humans were for after all. Nor was it his near death at the hands of the alchemist, he had been arrogant, but not even decades of preparation were enough to stop him.

No, it was something so minute that the cattle had probably not noticed it. Even his two remaining elemental lords only barely noticed the effects. It was understandable, they had access to neither metal nor fire essence. Elementals saw the world in gradations of their essences, making their sight poor until they were fused into elemental lords and attained enlightenment.

The Lord of the Underworld was blessed with four essences, fire, and earth from his anima, a metal domain, and a dark kern making his sight more complete than most. What he saw was unnerving. The air was filled with an unusual amount of fire and metal essence. It was not to the level Vulcan’s hideout had achieved over the years, but it was concerning.

It made his vision less reliable, while at the same time expediting his healing. The arches over the pit he had been in were completed, and he was currently sitting in the throne room that was being constructed by the humans where the arches intersected. It had no roof as of yet, a fact that the Lord of the Underworld took advantage of.

Using his domain he took control of his armor, using it to pull himself off the ground. The workers gawked as he defied gravity and shot into the sky. Flying was essence intensive, but if he was not in combat, there was always essence to spare. Once he reached an altitude of around a mile he spun looking for the anomaly.

It did not take long to find. An elemental's eyesight struggled with depth, as denser sources of essence would appear with greater clarity, even if they were at a distance. Normally he would not be able to see more than a mile in any direction, but when he looked to the east there was a second star.

“What is that?” He muttered to himself.

It was so far away that he could not feel the essence between it and the natural range of his essence. That was unsettling, it could be a mile and one foot away, or it could be a thousand miles from here. He started drifting away from it to see if it faded from his sight. The closer it was the more quickly it should fade. When there was no change, the Lord of the Underworld frowned, that was a very powerful source of fire and metal essence, two elements he possessed. Should he retrieve the object?

The bubble of essence pulsed. There was no sound, but the Lord of the Underworld understood, “Hello, little elemental.”

He broke eye contact and dropped back to the ground. No elemental lord was a coward, but they all lived in accordance with the law of the predator. There was no mistaking it, compared to that creature he was prey. It only noticed him because he made eye contact first, he would have to hope it was uninterested in him and his kingdom.

Still trembling slightly, the Lord of the Underworld took a few minutes to steady himself before dropping back through the roof and settling on his wooden throne. It was the one the Elder of the nearest settlement had passed judgement from. That same elder was scheduled for execution in the next few days, advice given by a man who was quickly becoming his favorite mortal. A mortal that was currently kneeling before his throne.

“Is everything going well, Lord Ajax?” No deceit was discernible in his voice.

“An anomaly in the east,” He answered, “have you achieved your goal?”

“Yes, Lord Ajax, thanks to the show you put on over Alchehall, we were able to raid the alchemist's lab,” Shadow Fist said.

The Lord of the Underworld had spent considerable artifact resources to push the man to tier four. One might ask why, and the answer was simple. He needed someone sneaky to steal the research of the alchemist while he was distracted. The cost of seventy artifacts to push the man to tier four paled in comparison to the harvest he would reap after finding the lost part of the warship.

While many elemental lords lacked the memories of their human vessels, they still possessed their greatest regrets. Ajax regretted failing his duty to protect his people. That regret had come with a memory of the Flying Fortress from the exterior, even accounting for the activities of these human termites, only half was present.

Where did the other half go? The whole vessel had been forged with the absorbtion force. Normally that was the best middle ground between stealth and durability, which would have served them well while on campaign. The cultists found them first, tearing the fortress in half, and crashing it into the ground. He would eventually eradicate the temple, as they were the descendants of those same cultists. He was the only god they should worship.

The absorbtion force hid the other half of the ship. He had sent out elementals to find it without much luck. After a month of coming up empty-handed, the temple approached him about killing the alchemist. Originally he had been against that. Yes, the man was dangerous, so what? He was an inventor, cattle with a purpose beyond eventual consumption. A resource more valuable than the goodwill of some acolytes to a dead god.

Shadow Fist had been present at the time and had pointed out that the man had spent over half a century in this crater atop the mountains. It was a small area for a hero to call home, most local tier six people oversaw hundreds of square miles if they lived a nomadic lifestyle. There was no reason to believe he had not scoured the entire caldera, dug for minerals, and cataloged every species that could be found.

“Were you able to locate the other half of the fortress?” The Lord of the Underworld said.

“The other half of the mine, Lord Ajax?” Shadow Fist questioned.

Humans could be so dull. He had woken to find a herd of humans who were unaware of what a king was, and the closest thing they had to a fortress were the walls to keep beasts out. It had to be expected, they counted their lifespan in decades and were unable to amass any wisdom. The Lord of the Underworld wanted to snap at the human but realized he was still unstable. Had that being unsettled him so much? Yes, he was not used to being prey.

“Yes, it should be mostly composed of tower steel,” The Lord of the Underworld.

“We have two leads,” Shadow Fist said, “The first is in the Lake Caldera. Some notes into experiments on aquatic plants mention a large quantity of metal, resistant to rust was located at the bottom of the lake. He wanted to see if he could engineer a metal plant due to the metal below the mud. The second one is just outside the caldera to the north, a small tribe of tortoise mythical beasts have gathered around a ruby stone. They developed shells made of a metallic red substance after spending some time there. If you want me to go check them out I can take a squad of soldiers and head in. The notes say that they are tier four, but are lopsided in defense.”

“A Kharkodine deposit, interesting,” When he saw the confused expression on the mortal's face, “Blood metal, named after a large sea-bound predator drawn to blood.”

Blood metal was a good crafting material, and would need to be harvested in the future. However, it was not important at this time. He had escaped from the insane alchemist’s suicide attack by diving into that very lake. Had he been floating a couple hundred feet from his quarry? Water was one of the few things that blurred his sight, it not only formed a barrier, but it also moved, distorting the essence by the time his senses received it. It was also a spot where he had previously lost contact with one of his elemental lords.

The alchemist had killed him to stop the Lord of the Underworld from finding the rest of his people. If the man had not blown himself up, the Lord of the Underworld would have killed him outright.

“Gather the elite humans we have left, and have them march towards the Lake Caldera,” The Lord of the Underworld said.

“Lord Ajax, I will obey, but there are no longer enough fighting men in the Forest Caldera, we will not be able to achieve your goals,” Shadow Fist said, “It may also be prudent to execute Forrest before, turn it into a crusade and channel the people’s distress into action.”

The Lord of the Underworld nodded. He appreciated the fact that the man spoke his concerns. It would make him a better vassal when he achieved immortality, “Leave that to me, there is an army of elementals in the Stone Caldera after all.” He paused for a few moments, “You are right, we will execute him in a week, I will have time to claim victory in that time.”