The Runic Alchemist

"Leave us..." the commander ordered. Everyone except Damian left the room.

"Are you saying you have an iron golem spell? Or did my ears deceive me?" she asked, her tone sharp with disbelief.

"It's a theory of mine," Damian replied, laying out the facts. "I want to test it, but I can't do it here—it might be dangerous. So, will you help me?"

"You?" Her face twisted in shock, each word dripping with incredulity. "You're barely eleven years old and claim to have discovered the ancient lost art of the iron golem?"

"It's just a theory for now," Damian said with a calm shrug. "I might be wrong, but I have to test it."

"No," she snapped, regaining her composure. "You can't create an iron golem on your own."

"Then you draw the runic circle," Damian challenged, his eyes unwavering. "If you can, that is. I just want to see if I'm right."

"And what if you are?" she asked, her curiosity momentarily piqued.

"Then we'll have an extra golem to accompany us in the fight. They only cost mana to summon and control, right? We can keep it around as long as it lasts."

"You don't understand what you're talking about, kid," she said, her voice turning cold again. "A pure, high-quality iron golem adorned with runic inscriptions can be a walking disaster for anyone who crosses its path. Such a thing is too dangerous to keep around during a battle as critical as this. I can't let such uncertainty walk free."

"What if I give you control over it once I successfully summon it?" Damian countered, leaning in slightly. "Will you come with me then? I need to go far from here."

"And you'd just do that for me?" she asked, her tone laced with sarcasm and doubt, her cold yet beautiful face unreadable.

"Get that collar and prepare the contract. That'll put your mind at ease, won't it?" Damian said, his voice steady. "Decision time now. Do we get ourselves a golem or not?"

"I'll control it and keep it once all of this is over," she agreed, her voice firm. "And you're using my materials, anyway."

"I don't care," Damian said, waving a hand dismissively. "I just want to see if I'm right."

An hour later, the mana contract was signed, securing Damian's safety and passage back to the royal palace if everything went according to plan. The spell was complex, but Damian, ever the opportunist, memorized it as it formed under Vidalia's hands. The elements involved were light and chaos.

Damian could tell by observing that the spell followed two paths, like a flowchart—if one condition was met, the light element would activate, and if it failed, the chaos element would take over.

When Damian mixed his blood into the center of the runic circle, some of it absorbed into the contract documents, which wasn't particularly important. However, the few drops that sank into the runic spell caused both parts of the circle to separate, entering his and Vidalia's bodies, separating into further two, total four parts, 2 light and 2 chaos. The spell settled near their hearts.

Most people wouldn't notice, but Damian could feel the foreign elemental mana coursing through him, while the rest of the runic circle remained on the paper where they'd signed. Nice—one more spell in his arsenal. Though he wouldn't dare experiment with this one randomly, given how much mana it consumed.

From Vidalia's expression and his own mana sense, Damian could tell it had taken a significant amount of power—enough to keep the spell active for a month. The contract was valid for a month, after which they'd have to renew it or it would lose its effect. But what exactly would it lose?

Damian suspected the paper-based part of the contract determined the terms, while the real execution of the spell was sustained by their bodies. If the conditions weren't met when the deadline passed, someone—whether Damian or Vidalia—would die, no matter where they were but only if the spell part on the document was powered, it was necessary to check the conditions whether or not it was true.

In short even after the spell above the document losing power from passing the deadline the execution part will stay active, waiting for someone to pour mana into the contract document so it can check the condition and execute it's purpose. A very nasty spell, indeed. Who the hell came up with such a thing?

With everything set, Damian was fitted with a control collar around his neck. He noticed the runic circles powering it drew from his own mana, which explained why they needed his agreement to wear it. A mana thread extended from him to one of Vidalia's new runic rings, which gave her control over the spell.

There was no chaos mana in this one, but Damian guessed that once activated, the mana thread would give her full control over his body. Another dangerous spell—but this one was easier to block. Though it would be difficult to keep blocking it with his limited mana, Damian could sense the mana thread, so he didn't need to create a large barrier.

It could work similarly to the link-blocking spell he had used before. Plus, he already had an excuse to ask her for more mana because of the link, so it wouldn't be a problem until she activated it and realized it was blocked.

"Ready?" Vidalia asked for the first time, grabbing Damian's hand as she prepared to fly. He nodded and gripped her arm tightly.

She activated her flight spell, but this time, instead of using two runic circles, she used four green runic circles to power their ascent. It felt strange, having his flight controlled by someone else, but then again, being able to fly at all was strange enough. Damian committed the spell to memory.

He was far from being able to use it, given its enormous mana requirements, but it was nice to have, just in case.

After flying a few kilometers away from the camp, in the direction of Eldoris, they landed on a flat, snow-covered plain where the wind howled like a turbine. Damian didn't bother trying to shout over the wind and instead unblocked the mana link.

'Can you do something about the wind?' he asked. 'The parchment won't stay still like this.'

'Hmm...'

Vidalia made a casual gesture with her arm, and a protective wall, similar to the one she had created during the battle with Moondancer, formed in front of them, shielding them from the oppressive winds. Damian laid out the giant runic scroll way bigger than his own height—twenty-five parchments pieced together to form what looked more like a runic carpet than a scroll.

Vidalia's stunned expression was a reward in itself.

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