The Runic Alchemist

Einar, Lucian, and even Sam and Grace had all volunteered to join the dungeon-clearing effort to reduce casualties on their side. In time, they found anything useful Damian wanted to be done with these important internal management issues.

The best way to ID each person was by using the unique ID all people had, but only Damian could see that. He had not found any way in which he could share his unique vision with anyone. But even if he did—he wouldn't be willing to give such a powerful thing to just anyone.

Mindseer was the target of his waygate—she was inside a room. Thankfully, she was not naked like a certain long-legged elf—she was in discussion with a group of people seated around the table. Damian was not sure the Land-breaker would be in Edgeheaven, since he had mentioned going out to find his people that the demons had taken with them.

Damian had visited every single city and town occupied by the demons in the old Empire, but there was no sign of any Highsword prisoners—or Reize, for that matter. Damian had expected at least Reize to be there, but he guessed she had already saved her family and left Malveria somehow. There were many ships missing from the ports of the old Empire—meaning many ships had left the land in hopes of surviving before the battle.

Damian had not found them on his way to the Island of Demons, but he had just flown in a straight direction, and a ship would not travel like that. Damian didn't consider a few demons important enough to go search for them after fighting a whole battle and all—their third-rankers were dead, even if they wanted to, they couldn't do much.

They had found a major part of the cult in the old empire that was responsible for infiltrating the five kingdoms back in the day—many names had been revealed that were still in high positions in the three kingdoms. The Emperor, Elf Queen, and Faerunian representatives had been informed, and they had told him the culprits would get suitable punishment. Since all of them were humans of their kingdoms, Damian did not try to butt into their internal issues.

Surprisingly, there were a few of these accomplices even in Sanctuary—Damian had imprisoned them, questioned them with his Divine Seeker Chains, but they were just pawns and spies. They themselves had no idea who it was that they gave their reports to, or what happened with the information they stole and reported.

Many of them did mention their dealings with Shadow Reaver and other beastmen and human groups, who had only one mission—and that was to spread chaos in all human lands. This was not the first time Damian had heard about these gangs.

To Damian's surprise, he could not just sense the Land-breaker on the island—there were others. Many second-rankers, but only one other third-ranker. A mana signature Damian recognized—Voidshaper. It was a pleasant surprise—Damian had no idea he cared for the guy's wellbeing at all.

"I will be leaving," Damian said to the group of shocked Edgeheaven city officials. Mindseer simply nodded, retaking her seat.

Damian flew out of the window. The city of Edgeheaven was bustling with activity. Some saw him flying and completely ignored him—that was very rude! But to the people of Edgeheaven, seeing random third-rankers flying above them or walking on the streets was nothing new.

Some 500 Highsword knights and their squires were busy rebuilding the Obsidian Bastion with the help of Land-breaker and Voidshaper. The other Highswords, like Worldscribe and Runefather, Damian could sense somewhere beneath the ruins of the Obsidian Bastion. They were still inside the mana spheres—breaking free of their overseer's control. Damian had taken Asher's sphere with him to the Sanctuary—that guy was also not free yet. Damian had placed him at the top of the new Sanctum building so he could keep an eye on the guy at all times from his seventh floor.

Land-breaker and Voidshaper had already sensed him; so had many second-ranker Highsword knights. Damian landed a little distance from the construction to not disturb the people working there. A lot of Edgeheaven civilians were among the five hundred Highsword people. It just showed how much the people of Edgeheaven valued their guardians of old.

The reason Damian had arrived in Edgeheaven was the system he had noticed them using when he was in the academy. The modified status badge system that they gave all students to keep track of the honor points, check new goods that had arrived in the academy shops, and show the announcements related to the academy and their daily schedule. It worked on a very similar technology like radio waves, but it used thin mana threads instead of electromagnetic waves.

The Empire had done some research into old Earth's technology like radio waves, but the one on Highsword Island was better. It had the potential of keeping a huge record and even shadowing images and videos—that was if Damian somehow found a way to record them. It would be perfect for his ID registration process.

He would have to see how much he could modify it though, before it turned into some high-level computer coding language and stuff—Damian had no idea how all that worked at all. All that was in the hopes that the source structure that recorded all the data—and the place Highsword added new information and stuff from—had survived the destruction of the Bastion.

"Runebreaker," Land-breaker called out his name as the supreme blade walked towards him with Voidshaper at his side. "Anything serious?"

"No, nothing like that—" Damian dismissed the concern they might have, "Just here to talk about something I observed in my time at the academy. Nice to see you have survived, Voidshaper. Would indeed like to hear that story too."

"Of course," Voidshaper said with a nod of acknowledgement. "I would also like to ask you some questions about the recent display of your powers that Mindseer mentioned. And there are a few things you might be able to help us with."