The master of alchemy.

I wake up having had a nightmare about invading mechines, but overall, I think I slept well. I went to Lex after a good breakfast and I saw him doing something with the byproduct of the fragments that were made harmless. I go and ask him what he is doing.

- What are you doing?

- Huh. Oh nothing, just making sure everything is stable.

- What for? Isn't that gem supposed to be harmless?

- It is, but I'm just checking. What do you need?

- Nothing, just wondered what you were doing.

Then Aktor comes from out of nowhere.

- How are you two?

- You probably shouldn't appear out of nowhere like that. Nearly gave me a heart attack.

- Oh, don't be such a baby Nor. You know how my ability is. So are we going to another realm?

- Yes, let's go ask Siel'Kel.

We leave and in when I look back, I see Lex still doing something to the byproduct.

We ask Siel'Kel to send us to a place called Grey. It is apparently the realm ruled by Carbon. And so we go.

Immediately we see buch of weird structures and animals. The plants were also bit odd. We decide to follow the path that was infront of us and we are soon greeted by a flying creatures who suddenly want's too lick us. We pet them because they seem to be friendly and soon after they decide to fly off. We follow the path and some time later we see a building that is filled with those flying creatures.

Soon we are greeted by more of these flying creatures. They pick us bouth up and we start to get a bit worried.

A while passes when are flying, and then we see a weird looking town. There were weird shaped building and structures. The flying creatures take us to the top of the tallest building, lick us and fly off.

Now we are standing on top of a building that we know nothing about. With no other option, we go through a door that seems to lead inside the building. When we are inside, we see buch of people with white coats walking around and doing something. They don't seem to be bothered by our presence, so we keep moving forward.

Then we are greeted by a person, who seems to be in distress.

- Excuse me. Are you Nor and Aktor?

- Yes, but how do you know...

- Excellent, now follow me. Lord Carbon wants to see you two.

So we decide to follow this person and she brings us to a hall that is filled with even more weird structures. We see that there is a person that is growing a tree in amazing speed and some birds flying around. There seems to be a hole in the wall that let's birds fly in. Then our guide tells her.

- My lord, the visitors that you asked are here now.

The person stops growing the tree and turns to us and starts to speak in a voice that sounds like it belongs to both man and woman. The voice also sounds bit uninterested. They look bouth like male and female human-elf hybrid whit long blond hair.

- Oh so you are here. Now then, you want my fragment? Then go to the edge of this world and fetch me a sap of an ourun tree.

- So you want us to just fetch something? If that's all it takes, then we are on it.

- Good. By the way, how did you like the flight with bochas?

- Bochas? So you mean those flying creatures. Yes they felt a bit odd but not bad.

Aktor asks.

- Why did they have to lick us though?

- They simply test if the person is friend or foe and marking them. If the target shows aggression, then they will simply attack it with numbers and eat it. Even thoung the barely eat anything and even less they eat meat.

- I see. Then which way are we going?

- Southwest. The ourun trees shine blue when it gets dark. Be carefull to not distutb the other inhabitants of the forest, or they might try to eat you.

- Noted. Let's go.

Me and Aktor leave the building. We walk around the town and we see all kinds of races around us. We leave the town and I call my Bell. Aktor gets a weird looking fluffy horse like creature that is called hossa as a ride and we were off. I send Rin to scout ahead of us just in case.

It took couple of days to get there, but we finaly saw the edge of this world. The rivers were flowing from the bottom of the world up here, making reverse waterfalls and normal looking rivers. We looked around to see any trees and half a day later we saw a forest filled with trees in a small hill. It was just about to get dark, so we waited a bit and went to the forest.

It took a while to find a glowing tree, but we found it, took it's sap and started to leave. Until the ground started to shake hard. We decided to run for it and we manage to get out of the forest. What we saw was astonishing. The forest was on top of a gigantic creature and it started to walk alongside the edge of the world. Then I ask Aktor.

- Did we just wake up that thing?

- Sure looks like it.

- We need to ask Carbon about that creature.

- That we will.

Then we made a camp and started to rest for the night. The next day we would ride to the place where Carbon is.

Couple of days later, we get to the town. It's as weird as it was when we left it. Aktor brings the hosse back to the stables and I send Bell back to her realm.

We go back up to the building and see Carbon doing someting on a table. I ask.

- Is this a good time?

- Huh? Oh you two, come on in. Do you have the sap?

- Yes, here. But what was that creature?

I hand the sap to them.

- What creature? Did you perhaps wake up the bouroset?

- If that's the gigantic creature we saw, then yes.

- So you realy did. But why would she...? Perhaps the sap... No, that can't be it. This amount shouldn't hurt her that much. So perhaps she just happened to wake up on her own. Did she start to move alongside the edge?

- Yes she did. But why?

- So she decided to find a new spot. Or perhaps the mana around there started to run out or grow thin. Oh well, whaterver the case is, the fact that she moved means we need to keep an eye on her for the time she walks. And to do that, I have to send somebody there. John!

A man comes in a hurry from somewhere.

- What is it, my lady?!

- Get someone to scout where bouroset in southwest is heading to as quickly as possible.

- Yes, mam!

He leaves in a hurry.

- So now there is that mater, and now I can go create another bouroset. Perhaps I make it a bit smaller this time. Or maybe I should make it adapt to northern radiation. Yes, I'll do that.

- So the sap was for you to create another one of those creatures.

- Oh righ, you two are still here. Here.

The fragment appears from a thin air to Aktor's hands.

- Now that we are done here. Would you kindly go now.

- Ah yes, we will...

Then I had a thought. If Kiat is doing something with the blood of a god, then he would need a master craftsman to do it. Perhaps Carbon has something to tell us.

- But before we go, I have to ask. Would you happen to have worked on something on Kiat's request?

- Oh, you bring up that. Yes I worked on something. He gave me a stone containing some of Rahasia's power and asked for me to make a trade with it.

- What did you ask?

- He told me to ask her about how to make form out of fragment of destruction. Just like your bird here.

- And what did Rahasia say?

- She told me how to do it in exchange of her power. It was quite large portion of her power, so I don't blame her. Then, when the transaction was complete, she told me to send her regards her twin.

- She told me that it wasn't a big deal.

- She doesn't lie to people. In a grand scheme of things, she would have gained that power back in due time. It just would have taken decades.

- Then when you got to know what Kiat asked you to know, what did you do then?

- I went back to my realm and then Kiat appeared and gave me his fragment and told me I can work on it. He just gave me condition to make it humanoid in shape. He also gave me god's blood so that I can "make it flow" through my creation's veins.

- Do you know what Kiat is planing?

- He told me that he is going to ascend to godhood.

Aktor says surprised.

- To godhood!?

- Yes, it is obvious if you just think about it. He even bragged that he can give me more power when he is a god.

I say.

- Then we have to stop him.

- There is no need.

- What do you mean.

- Two reasons. One, he has fundamentaly misunderstood how godhood works. Second, I placed a failsafe on the pupet he asked me to create.

- Care to explain?

- He misunderstands that he can simply maintain his ego if he just has an anchor to this world, which is the pupet. To maintain an ego when you are in the origin, you would need a massive amounts of energy that even us demon princes combined cannot produce. That's just how powerfull the overlords of this world once were. To think that he can just go there and maintain his ego is absurd. And even if he managed to get into godhood, he would be limited of how much he can use his newfound powers. He may be cunning, but he still wont listen to his elder's warning. You naive Kiat.

- It's quite bold to call someone like him naive. What happens when he loses his ego?

- He simply will become part of the origin. Not a voice to be heard after that. Also, I'm considered one of the smartest demon princes and not by my own volition. They just call me that, because I'm closest of what one of the overlords once was.

- I see. You mentioned a failsafe. What is that?

- If Kiat tries to make an anchor out of the pupet, the pupet will gain it's own ego and be of no use of Kiat's plan. That is because he needs the pupet to be without an ego, or any type of indication that it's a person. If the pupet is without ego, then he would be free to make it an anchor and gain what he needs to "ascend to godhood".

- So you made the pupet in a way that would safe Kiat from his self inflicted demise.

- It's the older sibling's job to make sure the younger sibling doesn't make fool of themselfs. If he were to disapear, then he would be remembered as a demon prince who killed himself by trying to become a god. That would just bring shame on the demon prince's title.

- Of course that's your view on things. We will be going now.

- Before you go, I must warn you about one of the overlords. Did he call himself Lex now?

- What about him?

- I know what you are doing to the fragments and that Lex is the one taking care of the "purification". If I know that person, he is planing on something. There is no way he would just waste his brother's, our creator's, fragments and be done with them. He has to be making them into something and I don't like it. I urge you to make him explain his goals.

- I can tell that he has been a bit fishy lately. And he simply tells us that gems that come out of the purifier are harmless. I will make him talk when I next see him.

- Good and you should head to Kiat's realm soon. He is getting ready for his "ascension". And be carefull. Once he finds out that his plans have come to an end, who knows how he will react.

- I will go there next. Thanks for the heads up.

Then we leave the realm and go talk to Lex.

- We got the fragment from Carbon.

- Good. Now there will be one less.

Aktor starts talking.

- Care to explain what are you going to do with these gems that come out of the purifier?

- They are harmless, so you don't have to worry.

- You didn't answer the question.

- What are you getting at?

I talk.

- We know that you are planing to use these gems to do something. What is it?

- It's a personal matter.

- When it comes to a godlike being, personal matters are easily not that simple.

- Look, no one is going to suffer from what I'm going to do with these, so don't worry about it.

- Why can't you tell us the reason?

- Again, it's personal.

- It has to do with Destruction, doesn't it?

- ...

- Why can't you just answer?

- If you knew what I will do, then you would most likely stop me. So I prefer to not talk about it.

- Is that so.

A moment of silence passes untill Aktor breaks it.

- Well, not much we can do anyways. If you're going to do it eventually, then so we will witness it.

- Thank you for understanding.

- Let's change the topic. You mentioned that your powers disapeared over time. Why a person like you wouldn't try to keep them with some sort of trick? You're the smartest person on the world after all.

- First of all, I don't claim to be the smartest. I just have so much time on my belt that everything has become a frame of reference. Second, I did try at first but stoped after a while.

I ask.

- Why did you stop?

- I simply realized that my time is meant to wither away like all other things. After all, we four created this world to eventually disapear from it. There was no reason for me to do it, even if that would have made my life a bit easier. I still have my ways to use my old powers, but it will be difficult for me to do so.

Aktor says.

- So that's your answer.

- I have no regrets about this choice.

I say.

- Back to our goals. Carbon told us that Kiat plans to become a god.

- A god you say? Hhm, I figured as much.

- You knew?

- I had a feeling that would be his goal, but I had no proof about it.

- It would have been nice to tell us before. Anyways, we plan to confront him next. What are your thoughts about this?

- I say there is no need to do anything. He will fail after all.

- So even you think that.

- Did Carbon say the same? They always were a bit smarter than others.

- They said that they planted a failsafe incase he does manage to make progress.

- Caring older sibling. Even if they don't like him, they still will make sure their brother is safe.

- They told us that is more about the image of demon princes.

- They say that, but they are just like their creator. Eager to destroy and change things, but when it comes to saying goodbye to one of your own, they will get all emotional about it.

- Didn't you get emotional when Soul died?

- At least I didn't go ballistic when that happened. Though I still regret not trying to understand my brother more, when he was on the edge.

- I will not dig deeper and so I will go take some rest.

- You do that.

Aktor says.

- I will go out for a while, so if I'm not there when you decide to go to Kiat's realm, just go without me.

- If you say so. But why so sudden?

- I just feel like hunting.

- Well good luck with that.

We didn't see Aktor the next day.