AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Two days before…

“So, any ideas to deal with the beasts once I get to the vein?”

Wein answered without considering much.

“Just use a barrier like we’re doing here…”

Anya barely contained the urge to beat him up, how could he be so simple-minded.

“Don’t be stupid! Master taught us about the limitations of the bubble barriers… Although they are extremely versatile, they lose efficiency and weakens over a large area…”

Karl and Oliver exchanged a helpless look, they were already used to the pair’s dynamic.

“Fending against one or two beasts is possible, but near the vein, you would be facing a dozen with not more, and that’s not even the worse. You’re forgetting about the elemental attacks, according to Samia, most of the beasts close to the vein can use some kind of long-distance attack… When we faced the bats, the bubble blocked the attacks because we set it to block sound specifically, but how can we predict which type of attacks would be coming in our way? We could use a solid bubble barrier, which blocks everything, but we would lose the ability to counterattack. Let’s do it like this, for emergency and temporarily we can use a solid bubble barrier to block the beasts and attacks. Now, we need to think of something to keep the beasts at bay longer while I work on the energy vein’s control…”

Oliver’s eyes grew wider like he was suddenly enlightened.

“Master, you could use an earth barrier… Earth is the strongest element for defense, so it would probably last longer than a bubble barrier.”

Karl looked proudly at the boy, sticking to simple is always a better choice.

***

“Can we review the plan?”

Tael believed that being prepared was even more important than having ability, for him, planning was the first step to victory. Their resting time was almost over, but from now on, they wouldn’t be able to discuss much since this was the last planned stop before the energy vein. Karl nodded and took a deep breathed before explaining:

“According to Samia’s report, relying on stealth and concealment from this point on is useless. So, we’ll drop it and focus on covering these last three kilometers as fast as we can. The plan is to run until we can’t, then use a solid bubble barrier to catch our breath before doing it again. Each time, we can’t stop for too long because the beasts attacking us might accumulate and the barrier might not hold. So, we stop just enough to recover and think of a quick plan to dodge the beasts… Once we get to the vein, I’ll activate a giant protection barrier to push the beasts away, then a hardened earth barrier to block them until I can use the vein to build something more permanent.”

Lew, who was always interested in magic, couldn’t help but ask.

“Didn’t you say that a bubble barrier wouldn’t be able to block many beasts?”

“We don’t need it to hold, we just need to push the beasts away, so we could erect the earth barrier, in fact, the protection barrier would probably be destroyed in the process. One more thing, we need to stop close to the vein and leave a mark to define the borders of the barrier…”

The first time they heard the plan, Samia asked why she couldn’t replace Karl and activate the Arrays under the cover of concealment. The Alchemist explained that he was the only one spiritually strong enough to get close to the vein and activate the Arrays. Fortunately, they bought it and didn’t question him further.

***

Planning is great, but nothing ever goes as planned. Once the team entered the area infested with MT beasts, their strategy of pausing and advancing started to become less effective as the attacks became fiercer and the wounds accumulated. But they kept advancing until two of them couldn’t continue. Right there, panic spread in their hearts, they didn’t want to sacrifice their friends, but stopping wasn’t an option.

“What do we do?”

Diana tried to control the desperation in her voice, but her eyes betrayed her. She prayed Karl would have a miraculous solution and would save the day again. The Alchemist felt the pressure and hesitated a little before giving his idea.

“Let’s make a run for it! We leave them with the solid bubble barrier and place the mark here, hopefully, here will be close enough for the Arrays to reach and form the barrier… Tael doesn’t need to deactivate the barrier to let us out, he just needs to press the activator to change the effect for personal protection, which should protect them long enough…”

The plan was good but running this last part unrestricted was impossible, everyone knew this would mean sacrificing themselves to block the beasts. However, they didn’t object to it, after all, this was what they signed for.

So, they did it. They ran towards the vein without hesitating, for each beast that appeared on their way, a team member stepped forward to deal with it until only Karl remained.

The Arrays on his coat and in the wooden tool circling him tried to push the energy away, but it was a useless effort. Karl’s task wasn’t complicated, he just had to connect the Arrays of the barriers and form a line of major powering Arrays to energize the effect while reducing the energy levels between the vein and the barriers. However, the circumstances were far from ideal with the dense energy trying to ravage his body and the pressure of his friends possibly being killed.

He wasn’t lying when he proclaimed to have a stronger resistance to dense energy, but it wasn’t because of his large spiritual energy pool. The reason was uncertain even to himself, although he had a really good guess about it. Karl suspected something was either feeding or blocking the excess magic energy around him, which brought him to the current situation and also why he decided to make this attempt.

As the symptoms of poisoning worsened, Karl couldn’t help but second-guess his choice, maybe he was wrong. Either way, now he could only concentrate on connecting the Arrays fast. He could activate the barriers, but if he didn’t found a way to control the energy around it, the effects would crumble. The problem with dense and unrestrained magic energy was that it would even interfere with Arrays and spells. He was finishing to connect the fourth major powering Array when he felt his vision blur.

The strength quickly left his legs making him fall to the ground. Karl tried to look at his friends but couldn’t see anything past the white veil. Was this it? All of his dreams and projects would end just like this? He searched for someone, close to his soul domain, someone who became his most trusted partner and respected Master.

‘Master AI, please…’

‘-- A true Alchemist should never act unprepared.--’

The lesson rang on Karl’s mind until it also faded together with his conscience.

***

“Karl… Are you OK?”

The groggy boy reluctantly opened his eyes and saw Diana smiling, behind her, a blue barrier was shining. The head-crushing pain made him close his eyes and give up on comprehending the situation. After a few minutes, he finally stood up and checked the aftermath of their mission. Diana had a nasty bruise on her left leg and was limping, Samia seemed fine, she was checking on her sister, who was covered in cuts. Lew and Johann also looked fine, the former was helping Tael up, apparently, they had just finished taking care of Toni’s wounds.

Karl turned to Diana and was about to say something, but the girl had already anticipated his confusion.

“I saw you falling and thought everything was over… But then, the first barrier burst from your position and pushed the beasts back, not a second later the earth walls appeared. However, we forgot to account for the aerial attacks. So, we dragged you and asked Tael to expand the barrier, it looks like it’s holding well against the wind attacks…”

“I see… Thanks the Origin everyone’s alive! Now, I need to finish this so we can bring the rest…”

Karl looked around one more time to see the results of his actions. This time, they escaped, but next time might the last. From now on, Karl needed to weigh the costs carefully, they were no longer commoners enslaved to the Serion Kingdom, now they have a dream, a purpose and a Kingdom to defend…