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??/??/???? (Legend of Legaia)
Jinx glared daggers at Robin's back as Starfire led him away. It didn't seem to matter which reality he came from; he was always going to be a judgemental little prick.
Of course, he wasn't going to be some kind of 'hero' if he just accepted other people's ways of doing things. He and Batman both, despite being the planning and controlling kinds of heroes, would rather take a hail-Mary pass rather than doing something as gross or disgusting as testing a plan with a near-human specimen.
Maybe if the goblin had a few extra limbs? Or if it was obviously mechanical in some fashion? Then the little shit wouldn't have it in him to care.
Jinx inhaled deeply through her nose.
It was fine. She was fine. So long as Robin didn't actually interfere? Then he could be an angry little snot that cared more about the lives of rapists and murderers than their victims. Just like dear old Batman with his neurotic need to throw monsters like the Joker or Poison Ivy in Arkham instead of letting them be hoist upon their own petards.
...What even was a petard, anyway?
Jinx exhaled sharply out through her nose and shook her head.
She had things to do. Things to do that -actually- mattered.
Placing a claw on the petrified goblin's foot, the corpse disappeared into the inventory and she pulled out Alchemist's notes on the victims of the Juggernaut. Reading through them, she was reminded that her... friend... wasn't the most meticulous of planners.
22 people
4 are kids
need clothes
food?
what do I even do with take them to the castle-village in the North-West and make replacement tools with True Creation to reduce burden on the king
Cort?
Jinx inhaled again, slowly, as she turned those little facts over in her mind.
Alchemist wasn't the most meticulous planner... when it came to people. He left a lot of things open ended because he expected them to make their own choices and come to their own decisions.
Jinx exhaled again, the embers of her frustration cooling as she worked out her own plans. She sent a message to Alchemist, telling him that the goblin had worked fine, then got to work herself.
The first thing she did was assume a human form.
The second thing she did was cast True Creation, an image in her mind's eye of a simple white tunic, about knee-length and made of white cotton. She didn't need anything complicated but she did need things in bulk.
~~ From: Alchemist ~~
~~ To: Jinx ~~
~~ Got it. Sending adults first. Tell me if there are any complications before I handle the kids. ~~
The human-shaped dragon nodded to herself, her pink hair swaying with the action.
"Are you... alright?" a dry voice rasped from Jinx's left. She didn't need to turn to know it was Raven. "You seem... upset."
"Oh, you know, just peachy," Jinx told the girl with a wide, fake smile as her magic finished forming and a pile of neatly folded clothes appeared next to her. "Just got some important work to do, helping people in actual need. You know, no big deal."
Jinx's pink eyes slid from Raven's amethyst gaze as she got a system notification. A pittance of experience for Alchemist 'defeating' a woman named Maya and the addition of a single Ensouled Diamond worth... five-thousand GP.
Jinx extracted it, along with a cut, faceted diamond that would actually be used for casting her next spell.
"I don't think Robin meant-" Raven started to say before Jinx crushed the Wish diamond and a body formed on the ground, following the 'design' of the soul within the other diamond. One of an older woman with age lines on her face and... long green hair.
"Robin said exactly what he meant to say," Jinx told the adorable goth, with maybe a bit more heat in her voice than she intended. "I'm kind of in the middle of something, okay Rae?"
"...Okay," Raven acquiesced as Jinx cast another spell, a normal spell, and the body on the ground was dressed in one of the cotton tunics.
With that matter dealt with, Jinx tried to focus on the body as she pulled out another diamond suitable for Wish. This was the part that really mattered, this was the make-or-break point.
Otherwise they had to try and pull out the Resurrection magic and she knew that Alchemist didn't want to tamper with that. Neither did Jedo, by the vague sense of disapproval Jinx could feel coming from the outsider she was bonded with.
With false calm, Jinx crushed the faceted stone in her hand and used it to cast Soul Transfer.
For a long moment, Jinx feared that the spell hadn't worked. The woman on the ground just lay there, not moving-
Then she violently lurched forward, into a sitting position as she took a deep, loud, gasping breath. Her first one in her new body.
"What?!" Maya gasped before she started coughing. "What's going on?! I-"
The woman, increasingly confused, reached down to touch her legs before coming back up and touching her face.
"I..." Maya's green eyes looked about the realm, panic and fear giving way to confusion. "I... don't hurt anymore. Is... Have I died?"
"No," Jinx told the woman, her anger and frustration fading as she focused on something more important. "No. I- We're getting people out of the Seru. We..." Jinx swallowed thickly at the visible, growing hope in Maya's eyes. "It took some work but we've figured out how to save you. To save everyone."
"I... I have a daughter," the woman said. She started to stand up and Jinx was quick to assist her. "My daughter, Mei, is she here? Did she make it?!"
"She's still alive," Jinx explained as she got another notification, of Alchemist 'defeating' another person. "And we'll get to her as soon as we can. You were just the first-"
Jinx was cut off when Maya wrapped her arms around the girl, holding her arms tight against her sides in a bone-crushing hug.
"Thank you!" the woman cried, tears pouring from her eyes and staining Jinx's shirt. "Thank you... It hurt, so much, in that dark and terrible... Thank you..."
"..." Jinx didn't have any words, not in the face of such sincere gratitude. She didn't know what to say, couldn't find any words to try and help comfort the woman.
But, the warm feeling in her chest at seeing Maya and knowing that she was safe, that she was free of the suffering she'd been subjected to?
It was worth every second of time they'd spent struggling and fighting to find a better answer.
-----
King Lawrence von Drake the third was an exhausted man. Being the head of state to a country coming back from the brink of destruction was stressful and difficult in ways that he'd never before imagined.
Food, for example, was a constant struggle. Their fields had gone fallow, their stored crops had long since rotted away and they hadn't even had any seeds left after a decade of neglect. Thankfully, hunting was good and forage was plentiful but man cannot live on venison alone.
The small fishing hamlet of Rim Elm had proven incredibly valuable, then. They'd had fish aplenty to trade and some small amount of fruits and vegetables to offer. The seeds alone were as valuable as gold. More so, perhaps.
And now Rim Elm was gone, along with all of its people. Devoured by a massive beast and surrounded by raging Seru of such strength that approaching it was impossible.
King Drake feared for his people. Those lost to the beast and those that resided within his castle. So many lives, lost in an instant. And the mist was spreading out from the crimson, towering mountain of flesh.
What wickedness would strike his domain? Would they once more fall prey to the Seru? Or would hunger and starvation set in once winter came and game became scarce?
Searching for answers, from soliciting the Biron monks to the east to sending requests to the far north, to the kingdom of Ratayu where the line of Drake originated, had proven fruitless.
Worse, the answer he'd received from the house of Saryu had addressed him as his family's former name, when they'd been nobility of Ratayu.
They hadn't used the 'Dork' name in nearly one-hundred years. To be reminded of it as his people starved... It was an egregious insult upon the injury of his struggling people!
Lawrence sighed from where he sat at the head of a table. Not in his audience chamber but in a much smaller room, surrounded by documents and charts full of information compiled by his chroniclers and archivists.
The distressing state of their reserves, the output to feed his people, the input coming in from the hunters, the progress of a few quick vegetables growing in some of the fields they'd been able to reclaim.
His people had best like carrots. They were going to be eating quite a lot of them in the coming months.
Even re-establishing the fields was proving to be nightmarish. The oxen the farmers once had were long dead and they claimed it could take generations of selective breeding over a span measuring decades to regain a line of docile, useful beasts. Until then they were reliant on a few strong men that were unafraid to bond with a Seru to pull a plow.
Lawrence leaned forward, his elbows on the table as he cradled his head in his hands. The stress was turning his mustache, his pride and joy, into a mess of gray whiskers.
He needed more people to accomplish more work. But he couldn't afford to feed more people. But if the work wasn't accomplished, the people that he did have might not survive the winter.
Quite frankly? He needed a miracle. And, not to disparage the courageous children that had saved him and his people from the darkness of the Mist, he didn't need a miracle that punched the problems until they died.
The numbers, charts and projections practically swam before the lord's eyes as he listened to his most learned and educated men arguing.
At least, until a soft knock at the heavy wooden door drew their attention.
"Enter!" the king called. The door swung open with a loud creak from the ill-maintained hinges and a guard stepped in, his heavy boots clanking against the floor.
"Sir!" the man greeted with a brief bow, the butt of his spear thumping against the flagstones. "Something is coming from the south!"
"Details, man!" one of the scholar's demanded. "Is it a swarm of Gobu? A puddle of slimes? Are the Seru approaching?"
"...No," the guard admitted, his face turning red. "They're... people. Maybe about twenty of them? Led by a vanguard in black armor."
Lawrence chewed on his lip in thought, the action hidden beneath his mustache.
Bandits, perhaps?
No. The actions were too overt. If such people were after the pillaged remains of his fiefdom, they would be far better served in skulking about the shadows and depriving his people of what little food they could get. The starving husk would soon be unable to fight off any such forces.
"Let us meet them," Lawrence said as he stood to his feet. "We can take their measure and decide how to handle things."
"My liege?" a young man asked. Garrick Wyrmwood, last scion of the house of Wyrmwood. His family had once owned much of the land around the river and grown food for the kingdom. At the time, they'd been a small noble house.
Now Garrick was all that remained of a house bereft of lands or vassals. Still, the boy knew how to manage the lands and, if he could carry his own weight, Lawrence would see fit to restore his status.
"We can do nothing without information," the king explained as he stood from his seat and made for the door. "And the more hands that information passes through, the less it is worth. So come, let us see what encroaches upon our lands."
His men followed. Into the damp halls of his mountain palace- initially the stronghold from which they'd colonized the southernmost reaches of the continent, then a storehouse, then a fallback position, then...
It had been as much an archive of the remains of the Drake Kingdom as it was a tomb and a final, desperate hope.
Stepping out into the harsh light of day, King Lawrence Drake shielded his eyes with his a hand and looked out to the south, following the helpful directions of his harried guardsmen. There was motion and, squinting, he could even make out some colors. Black, yes, but also a wave of white just behind the black specks.
The king listened with one ear as his assistants spoke but his mind churned over the information, however little there was, immediately available.
That did not look to be some kind of raid. Some of those specks, getting closer and clearer, were children. In fact, the king was fairly sure he recognized some of those brightly colored heads of hair.
But...
That was impossible. Wasn't it? So far as he knew? The giant Seru that had consumed the people that he saw was still very much intact and unchanged.
Impossible or not, those looked to be the people of Rim Elm.
It was a good ten, possibly even fifteen minutes before the group arrived. Everyone from Rim Elm, every man, woman and child was arrayed before the king.
And, at the front, stood a trio of figures.
At the very front was a large, wide man wearing thick, black armor with a blue surcoat over it. Drake didn't see any weapons but, with the size of the gauntlets, he wasn't sure the man inside needed any.
To the armored man's right was a svelte figure in a black, armored robe and helmet. Unlike the one in heavy armor, this one had a pair of daggers strapped to their hips.
To the armored man's left was a tall woman with piercing green eyes wearing thick cloth armor. Also in black. She had a turban on her head and a thick plate of leather covering her torso but Lawrence doubted it would hinder her in the slightest.
"King Drake," the man in heavy plate armor at the front said as he stepped forward. The man did not bow, nor did he incline his head. There was no deference in his body language, nor in the forms of his companions. "Your people come to you in search of succor."
"...So I see," the king said as his eyes scanned the people before him. The people of Rim Elm all wore simple white tunics with white breeches. And each one carried a large, leather backpack that appeared to be heavily stuffed. Some of the people, tradesmen he recognized, actually had hammers or saws strapped to the outer sides. "And I will do my duty. My halls are open to the people of Rim Elm. But..."
Lawrence pursed his lips. He'd been told, time and again throughout his studies, that he was not to show weakness before his subjects.
But there was a time for propriety. And there was a time to accept reality. To admit defeat.
"My stores are limited," Drake admitted as he closed his eyes in shame. "The larders of the Drake Kingdom sit empty."
When he opened his eyes, Lawrence saw that the armored figure in the front was looking directly at him. The man nodded, once, and began to approach.
Lawrence's guard was quick to try and intercept, blocking the man with his spear, but it was ignored. The armored figure stopped at a respectable distance. Close enough to easily be heard but, in theory, too far away to make any sort of surprise attack.
"I can provide food and water," the man said, his voice even. "Though I will warn you. While it is filling and nutritious? The taste is terrible."
Lawrence wanted to believe the man. He wanted to believe he'd just been given an answer to both of his most pressing problems.
For the sake of his people, he needed it to be true.
"You'll excuse me if I request proof of your claims," Lawrence said, doing his best to be diplomatic with his statement.
"Of course," the armored man agreed without hesitation. "Bring me to your kitchens and I'll explain everything."
-----
Underneath of Ratayu, one Alchemist sat on the ledge overlooking the incubation pit for the Juggernaut. His lips were pursed in thought as the various umbilicals connected to the artificial entity withered and fell off in sequence.
The Juggernaut was done. There were still a few little things to do, yes, but the beast itself was complete.
It looked nothing like the original, however.
The original Juggernaut was a monster the size of a mountain with six leonine limbs, two tails and a pair of great, wicked ram horns coming from the back of its head. The armored plates that covered the creature were dark, appearing gray under the light of the sun.
Alchemist's Juggernaut, and he was going to have to come up with a new name for the entity, was a great serpent that traded bulk for length. It had a single pair of arms that ended in four-fingered hands with sharp, wicked claws and the horns along the back of its head were shorter, practically stubs in comparison to the only other living sample. Unlike the progenitor, it was as black as his own draconic form and covered in stars.
Whatever the Juggernaut may have been, wolf or panther or unholy abomination of both... his was not.
It was a wyrm. Huge, powerful, grand...
And it still needed a name. Which Alchemist was struggling to focus on as his other half dealt with the Drake Kingdom, far to the south, and he required the better half of the focus that Bilocation allowed between his two bodies.
-----
Alchemist had a number of books and scrolls spread across the length of a long, wooden table inside of the Drake castle. And, on top of a pentagram surrounded by sigils drawn in chalk and fowl blood, stood an old, cast-iron cauldron.
He hadn't just been sitting around and staring as his own blood, life force and magic was consumed to make the Juggernaut under Ratayu. He'd been working on Enchanting, reading what was available and experimenting where he could.
Some of the texts he'd read through spoke of experiments he would not be replicating. Spoke of binding captured souls and tormenting them to draw out power from their misery.
He'd leave that kind of evil to Doctor Venture. Alchemist would not be touching magics that black, not if he could ever help it.
"-clearly used magic in the past," Alchemist said, frustration creeping into his voice as he spoke at the blank faces of the people around him, incomprehension clear in their eyes. "I can literally buy remedies at the various shops, Magical Leaves, Berries and Fruits, that help restore magical stamina. You cannot be telling me you've never questioned how the Seru can create lightning or fire from nothing!"
"...The Seru are a force beyond humanity," the king said, his words slow. Around him, several men wearing fancy hats seemed to be thinking the same thing. "That they can perform these miracles is why we've partnered with them since time immemorial. They allow us to do things that we, by ourselves, cannot."
"Of course you can," Alchemist disagreed as he held up one hand. Fire hovered over his palm for a moment, then lightning danced between his splayed fingers before, finally, ice formed around the black gauntlet. "You simply don't know how!"
Alchemist clenched his fist and the ice shattered, startling the nearby guards into pointing their spears at him.
"You are, all of you, the Children of Tieg," Alchemist explained after taking a deep, calming breath. "The Seru are certainly more potent because they are each more focused in whatever it is that they specialize in but, while they are here, they need -you- to act. Where do you think this power comes from?"
The blank looks sent Alchemist's way was very, very telling.
He would have better luck talking at the walls. It would almost definitely be less frustrating.
With a disappointed sigh, Alchemist just turned his gaze down to the cauldron he'd prepared for enchantment. He reached into his surcoat and pulled a Common Soul Gem from his inventory, the lavender gemstone shining dimly with the power trapped within.
"...The Seru are meant for laborers and warriors," one person, practically a kid, spoke up. "We've... never actually used them. Not before the mist came, I mean."
Alchemist didn't dignify that with a response. Rather, he focused on the cauldron within the magic circle, a tool that would help focus the energies of enchantment and bolster the success rate. There was no chanting and no fancy waving of his arms and hands to channel his own magic.
Create Food and Water was a third-level spell. It was, compared against the likes of Wish or True Creation, astoundingly simple.
Instead Alec just tapped the soul gem against the rim of the magic circle, shattering the gem in a brief burst of light.
"...This cauldron will now provide you with enough food to feed a good thirty, perhaps forty people a day," Alchemist explained, forcibly moving on from the topic of learning magic. He instead reached to the side, next to the books of 'Accelerate Growth' or scrolls of 'Goodberry' to grab a ladle which he dipped into the cauldron. It came back up, full of pale, goopy oatmeal. "Though, as I said, the food itself is incredibly bland."
"Fascinating..." the king muttered as he dipped a finger into the slop. He put the digit into his mouth and visibly grimaced. "Can nothing be done for the taste?"
"No," Alec denied as the fragments of the soul gem reassembled and a white gauntlet flew from Alchemist's belt to collect it. "This is only a stopgap, I'm afraid. It should help you get through the coming months, however."
Well, he had included a scroll of Prestidigitation along with the other introductory spells he'd left on the table. It could be used to alter the taste. Or it could be used to alter the texture and consistency of the supplied food.
It could not fix both at the same time, however, which was truly unfortunate.
The mage listened with half an ear as the number crunchers in funny hats and robes argued with each other before simply shaking his head.
He didn't know if it was a symptom of the nobility that they chose to ignore literal magic and leave it for the laborers or if there was something else at play. And, honestly, he didn't really care to find out.
Alchemist hadn't done everything he could to resolve the logistics issues plagueing the Kingdom of Drake but he had, if his observations were correct, bought them time.
He could have, if he'd been so inclined, used a Grand Soul Gem and doubled the output of the Cauldron of Meh. He could have Fortified his Enchanting and multiplied the effect several times over. But, and this was important, he did not want to 'solve' the food issue for them.
And he did not, under any circumstances, want to be responsible for handing over an artifact which could feed a small army. Because he was sure it would be used to, surprise surprise, become the secret, unsung weapon backing a small army.
"I've other business to see to," Alchemist eventually said as Drake's scholars and nobles argued. He made to leave but stopped when he felt a hand try to grip his arm. Following the arm, Alchemist saw the same young man that had spoken up earlier. "Yes?"
"Is there anything else you can tell us?" the young man asked. "Any other kind of help? We... I have money. I can pay you, if-"
"See to your lands," Alchemist gently chided the boy. "See to your people. Between the both of those, you will survive. Care for the both of those and you will thrive."
Alchemist pulled his arm away and the boy let him leave. The mage did not look back as he left. He did not turn around so he could return the considering stare of King Drake. He ignored the chatter and questions which followed him.
They had the tools, now. They didn't need him to help them.
They could help themselves.
-----
The Alchemist in Ratayu considered the great wyrm, coiled around the giant yellow orb that housed the machinery that once fed it.
His other half had collected Kary and Jinx, the both of them looking at the various stalls selling medicines and weapons, and returned to the clearing he'd claimed for his outpost.
Everyone was out and about, from the most dour of the Teen Titans, Raven, to Kary's hateful little hellcat, Nostradamus. Everyone needed a bit of fresh air, a change in location.
Yuffie and Starfire were busy playing with the Hellhounds and Beastboy, also transformed into a dog.
Robin and Cyborg had hunkered down outside of Alchemist's makeshift cabin. They were reheating leftovers from the night before and arguing. About what, the mage wasn't certain, but while it was heated it did not sound hateful.
Even Jinx and Kary were outside, practicing their bladework with Player One.
It was rare for the demi-plane to be empty, at least when Alchemist was handling so many people at the same time. But he wasn't about to complain.
He was just happy that everyone seemed to be figuring themselves out.
So, underneath of Ratayu, Alchemist focused on his Juggernaut. If he concentrated, he could actually feel the creature breathing, distantly. It was linked to him, sympathetically, albeit weakly.
It had been born from him, after all. And, when he Fused with it, that bond would only grow stronger.
But, and this was a serious concern, it was at least as long as a fully loaded freight train. The size was both a blessing and a curse.
Which was why Alchemist had the Game Shop open. It took some digging but the man selected an item and purchased it, his hands coming back with a half-inch wide metal collar studded with tiny jewels.
A Shrink Collar. A clever little device that would solve the worst of the issues surrounding Alchemist's Juggernaut.
And he supposed he could fit one on to the Juggernaut that devoured Rim Elm but then Alchemist would get an answer to what would happen to Cort if he did that. And Alchemist didn't really want an answer as to what would happen to Cort if he did that.
The man was about to stand up when he got a message from his administrator...
~~FROM: Ultra-powerful best goddess Terra-Tan!~~
~~Hey, hey, hey! You got a minute?~~
