Tools in Hand

For the next hour, David taught this terrifying, inhuman God of Death how to drive a car. He was having a blast, ripping around and doing donuts on what could be considered his “lawn”, which was just black, polished marble. The eerie silhouettes of buildings are just barely visible through the dense fog. Eventually, he wrecked into one of these buildings, laughing out loud.

“This is great! There’s millions of these where you come from? I’ve got to go check it out sometime.”

This thought strikes a pang of fear into David’s heart. He tries his best to gently discourage him.

The two of them climb out of the smoldering, wrecked vehicle and step away to a safe distance.

“Now, blow it up!”, Armageddon beckons him.

Gritting his teeth, David casts an explosion spell. The car is blasted apart into a shower of molten metal and chunks. Armageddon gives a gentle golf clap.

“Show me all the spells you know.”

Uh oh. He’d seen this one coming. He starts off with the “Big 4”.

Fire. Water. Wind. Earth. Wimpy demonstrations. Armageddon clicks his tongue.

“I should have clarified. Show me them at their maximum power.”

A bead of sweat forms on David’s forehead. He’d never really tried this before. He holds his hand out in front of him, squinting, furrowing his brow.

The air begins to sizzle in front of him. Like a massive butane torch, a column of fire erupts from his hand, as wide as a building, punching a hole through the dense fog. It seemingly goes on forever. He glances at Armageddon, with the wind whipping around him. He gives an affirmative nod.

Next, water. More of the same.

For wind, however, David asks a question first.

“Do you want sheer volume or speed?”

“Speed, please.”

David lifts his hand up and snaps his fingers. A tiny, razor thin beam of wind erupts in front of him, rending the air and delivering an unbelievably loud sonic boom. The fog ahead whips and swirls around its epicenter.

He lifts his hand up again to do earth, but Armageddon stops him.

“Do all four at once.” He’s got a big smile on his face. David pauses for a moment to think. Casting them in succession is one thing, but how the hell is he supposed to combine them? Well, he’ll just have to give it a shot.

All four elements appear in magical rings in front of him, rotating in a circle. He layers them together, and decides to make a multi-element beam, just like the wind magic. It forms in front of him; spinning itself into an ever tighter column, a brightly-glowing miracle of fusion. He lets it loose – it rockets through the air just like the wind beam.

Armageddon stays silent, his hand on his chin, with a pensive look to him.

“You know, I had an elf one time who could do that. The problem is that he was already old when I met him, he only lasted a couple hundred more years. Anyway, now do the specialties, enough with this lame stuff.”

The specialties? “Hmmm...”

“Pocket.” In a snap, David and Armageddon are pulled into a dimensional pocket. His eyes light up.

“Oooooh! Neat!” He taps on the walls, which causes it to shatter.

David looks down at his feet; there’s a chunk of metal on the ground. He picks it up and holds it in front of him, and transforms it into a pile of gold coins.

“Alchemy, too?”

David shrugs. “It just seemed particularly useful.”

Off in the distance, he hears a rather aggressive, sharp set of footsteps approaching. The fog is too dense to see it clearly. The silhouette of a woman comes into view.

“Mom!”, Armageddon shouts.

This guy has a mom? He didn’t just spawn out of some horrible black ooze or something?

His mother comes into view. White, shimmering hair, the same black creepy eyes, and a particularly tight-fitting and revealing outfit, with shiny black heels. She seems cross.

“What is the meaning of all this racket? Why did you bring that… “thing” here?”

David is forced to stand awkwardly as this rather strict parental figure berates her son for a minute. He’s kowtowing to her totally. I guess even guys like him have to deal with this. An extremely uncomfortable moment passes, and the mom storms off.

She’s ranting the entire way. “I can’t believe you would do this. I told you not to test me. When you get home, you’re going to learn your lesson.”

Scary.

“Armageddon?”, David asks him, meekly.

“Yes?”

“What should I do about the Slimes in Laios?”

He tilts his head, pausing to think.

“I don’t really care. Do with them what you want. The experiment failed, anyway.”

He pauses again.

“Oh! This might be fun.”

He holds out his hand, and two tiny, black rods materialize, about a foot long. They’re in a very curious Y-shape.

“These are the Dowsing Rods I used to build the Slimes. One of them is for their minds, the other for their bodies. You should be able to speak commands into them. If you touch them together, it will instantly kill the closest one; try not to do that, it hurts the tools.”

David takes them in his hand. They’re really heavy, and ice cold. These are real magical implements.

“Unfortunately, I have to go deal with some pressing matters.”

His mother’s angry face pops up in David’s mind. Yikes.

“I’ll return you to the surface. Until we meet again!”

The floor opens up under David’s feet; he’s sent into a pitch-black freefall. A maw had opened up at the bottom, he could see blue sky rapidly approaching. He rockets through the opening and finds himself floating mid-air, surrounded by a very trigger-happy group of College Mages. One of them, the squadron leader, points angrily to one of the spire platforms. No negotiating with this guy.

He’s hurried along a series of corridors, which arrives at a large meeting room. The king sits at the end of the table, flanked by his Elder Mages and a ton of research staff and attendants.

Another angry pointed finger; it’s at the seat at the very end of the table. Realizing he’s still holding these icy, dense Dowsing Rods, he sets them on the table gently. The room goes quiet.

David glances around the room with his eyes. They’re all staring at him. Do they expect him to say something? He’s not going to say anything. Well, maybe he should.

He gingerly raises his hand, as if to speak. Kalth, who is sitting beside the king, jumps up from his chair and marches over, leaning in closely, still not saying a word.

He’s staring at the Dowsing Rods. Then, he turns to David.

With a chilling, raspy tone, he asks:

“What are those?”

“A gift from Armageddon, sir.”

“A gift?” The look he’s giving David is like a parent scolding their child. A very, very strong eyebrow raise. Very accusatory.

He nods.

“They’re… the tools he used to create the Slimes.”

One of the Elder Mages gasps. Surprised murmurs fill the room.

Kalth’s hand stretches down to one of the Rods.

“Wait!”, David stops him.

“He told me that, if the two rods ever touch, it kills the nearest Slime. One is for their minds, one is for their bodies. He said that I could just speak into them and they’d work… as intended, whatever he meant by that.”

Kalth leans down and eyes one of them closely. He lifts his hand up and casts a very complicated magical analysis matrix over it. A doleful look of concern stretches across his face.

“This… doesn’t make sense. None of this should be possible.”

He beckons the other Elder Mages over. One by one, they repeat the process. Analysis, and grave concern, befuddlement. The king was growing impatient.

He booms from the other end of the table.

“So? What’s the matter with you people?”

Kalth tries to give an explanation, but falls short. These four are supposed to be the foremost experts on magic in the entire country.

“We don’t understand it, sir. I’m saying, these objects shouldn’t exist. They have no signatures. Even the composition isn’t based on anything I’ve ever seen. They’re even absorbing heat from the room while just laying there.”

The king asks the obvious question, aimed at David.

“Well, do they work?”

“I haven’t tried them yet, sir.”

“What are you waiting for, then? Go try them for God’s sake. We’ll drill you about the details later. Come on, go, get out of here.”

He waves his hand, gesturing for David to leave. Carefully keeping the rods separated, one in each hand, he shuffles out of the door, Kalth following close behind.

Kalth taps him on the shoulder, and speaks to him with a hushed voice.

“Are you alright?’

“I think so.”

“I’m going to be honest, those Rods terrify me. I don’t want to touch them, and they might be affecting your mind. If you notice anything strange, tell me, and if you do anything strange, I’m going to have to kill you. My apologies in advance.”

David gulps.