Grand Saint Alloy

A death knell echoed down through the catacombs, nearly half a mile below the surface. A consciousness roused itself, it had awakened early this time. Normally, Lord Vulcan chose to slumber, letting eons pass between stirrings. His power was not limitless, but it neither was it insignificant. Searching his lair for a disturbance he found nothing different. The decay of the structure around him was progressing within reason. It had only been around fifty years since he last awoke, and that was when the world strider showed up.

So it was not a disturbance of the geological variety. Vulcan had been hoping, it would mean the ancient evil had been vanquished. He then extended his senses, he felt the metal essence suffusing his home there were elementals outside his barrier. Fortunately they were dormant as well, not that it would have mattered. A flame essence based shield would incinerate anything dumb enough to try passing through it.

His heart hurt as he recognized several remnants of centuries deceased comrades. The elemental spawned from the fire and lightning kern of hero Hestia was slumped weakly against one wall. The parts of her body that had manifested were the lungs eyes and brain all held in a jelly like fire, she had fallen so far. No one would ever know her story, she simply died as one more nameless victim of the false god.

There were others, but mourning them all would only cause him despair. Being unable to move, it was not something Vulcan was willing put up with. His senses expanded further. Most of it found a void filled with traces of his shattered fortress and rare metals, judging by the resistance to his probe he was still surrounded by dirt. However, in addition to the dirt, his scan covered the throne room, where a sleeping being sat in his seat.

The elemental lord sat slumped over, like he had to much to drink the night before. It was a combination of three elementals, the remnant of Hades, who was the heart and bones of darkness, the remnant of Azura, the body and organs of earth and flame, and the remnant of Ajax, The lungs and mind of steel. Only by combining the three variants of elementals could a lord be born and this one was more potent than most.

After fusing the newborn elemental lord had named itself the Lord of the Underworld. Vulcan called him Lotu for short, mostly because it pissed him off. Lotu had quickly subdued the other elementals and made his name a true title. He was king of this underworld, all four rooms of it. A throne room, a retaining area, a cantina, and the officer’s restroom, which was where Vulcan was. Restrooms tended to be the best defended, one entrance, copper pipes in the wall, a constant supply of water and best of all, control of toilet paper in the event of a crises.

Well the crises had happened and everyone had died, spawning several elementals, so none of that was useful. A fire elemental never needed to use a toilet after all. Vulcan’s senses were pushed out as far as possible, well as far as he could passively reach with them. He decided it was worth the risk of alerting anyone even remotely powerful to figure out what had had woken him up.

He concentrated and stirred up the essence in his surroundings. It caused a cascade effect, rippling out in a sphere. The essence was disturbed for miles in every direction, and very few noticed. A bulky man with grey hair at his temples flinched while digging in a tunnel, but aside from briefly glancing around, there was no reaction. There was a boy behind him with blond hair and piercing emotionless blue eyes, his vision snapped to Vulcan, but he could not tell what created the ripple. Vulcan took note of the boy, normally only people who wielded a law could sense him.

The ripple of essence spread like a sphere, it completely covered the caldera. A basin set into the top of a mountain gave the civilization here admirable defaces. On the surface the wave passed and something familiar caught his eye. He found someone who had forged their souls into an artifact, he found a subordinate. A goblet made of the darkest onyx, Vulcan grinned, little Sai was still around. He decided to make contact with his foreman.

Sai was resting peacefully when the form of Vulcan coalesced in his mind scape. He did not stand, instead falling smoothly to a kneel, “Lord Vulcan Numitor, the hero greats the Grand Legend.”

Vulcan grinned, “Hey buddy, the first time I woke up you were still alive, and the last time you lacked the essence to stay awake. Glad to see your doing well.”

“Indeed, the descendants of my subordinates have adjusted well to the destruction your uncle caused,” Sai stated dryly.

Vulcan winced and rubbed the back of his head. A relatively pointless gesture as he was in full armor. In a mind scape, one would appear as they envisioned themselves, Vulcan was a man in full armor, while Sai wore the black robes of an elder. He decided to change the subject.

“Have you found what I asked you for?” Vulcan asked.

Sai nodded, “Yes, I’m surprised you did not notice him, he should be right on top of you as we speak.”

“Really,” Vulcan wanted to go see, but looking would break their mental link.

“Indeed, I have isolated him and surrounded him with uncertainty, the monster child is his only friend, so you should only have to offer him power to creat a pliable new disciple,” Sai said.

Vulcan looked up at the sky. This was Sai’s mind scape, so it was the stars from plain of Sahn that he saw, “Sai, I look forward to going home, I had a family, I doubt they are still alive, but I want to know if any of my grand children or great grandchildren are still around. When I go do you come with me.”

Sai shook his head, “No, Lord Numitor, I have made a home here. Currently you are taking one of my descendants into your care. Even if I am forgotten, I will have some part of me to travel the worlds.”

“Truer words have never been said,” Vulcan gave a sad smile, “Well then, buddy, if I don’t see you again, I wish to part as equals.“

Sai raised an eyebrow, “Why, you are a pure bread from the line of Numitor, you are a grand legend, a full nine tiers above me. We are in no ways equals.”

“Well, your right if you determine a persons worth by how much they can take without suffering retribution. However, I am most likely one of the ten strongest humans in this world, yet I am trapped in a cave. You are relatively weak, but you have built a legacy. Power without purpose is chaos, so you are my better when it comes to everything but power, “ Vulcan extended a gauntleted hand to he friend. In the past he would not have given Sai second glance, but a millennium of reflection had changed his mind.

Sai gave his first real smile in over a century. He stood and shook Vulcan’s hand, and despite the difference in their power they parted as equals, “Good bye, Vulcan.”

Once the mind link was severed, Vulcan inspected his surroundings. Indeed there was a boy with a tier zero kern. It was metal and unpolluted by any higher concepts. All he had to do was reach Vulcan before he became a hero at tier six. Perfect, now the boy just had to get past dozens of dozing elementals without dying, and then Vulcan could leave this dump.

“Good, your awake, have you decided to take me up on my offer,” A large being with brown skin with molten red cracks, black veins and silver eyes asked Vulcan from the restroom door.

Vulcan did his best to sound superior while next to a toilet, “Shut up Lotu, I’m busy.”

Lotu raised a flaming eyebrow, “Really, is that why you are carelessly throwing out your vision? Nothing important is happening, so I can only assume that you are bored.”

Vulcan knew that Lotu was technically right, however he couldn’t know that Vulcan had a plan and that plan was slowly digging down to him. It might be years, even decades before he met Sai’s descendant. Fortunately, for a being that had lived centuries, a few years were reasonable.

Vulcan grinned, though the expression was lost on Lotu, “You see my dear Lotu, I am never bored, I have you to tell the deep thoughts that I have about my surroundings, to get in touch with the deeper meaning of my reality. So you know, the bathroom .”

Lotu gritted his teeth, frustrated at the lack of an answer he was getting from Vulcan, “This is a waste of time.” He turned around and stomped back to his throne.

Vulcan cackled at the retreating form of Lotu, “See, you’re getting the hang of it.”