Elder Yueh sat atop his high platform, arms lazily draped over the armrests of his seat. His sharp eyes glimmered with amusement as he watched the hopeful young alchemists below.
“They think this will be easy?” he murmured, stroking his beard. “Na?ve. They believe the salts will yield their truths without protest.”
The vials, resting in their holders, trembled ever so slightly as though they had heard his words.
Cassius, Valencia, Aether, Thorne, and the others moved swiftly. Their plan was clear—eliminate as many vials as possible before committing to confirmatory tests.
Cassius steadied his hands and measured out dilute sulfuric acid into a dropper. The others followed suit, each carefully selecting a vial and applying the acid drop by drop.
A moment of silence.
Then—chaos.
A colorless, odorless gas seeped out from the first vial, curling in slow, lazy tendrils like an unseen specter. The students barely reacted at first—until one of them suddenly gasped, clutching at his throat. His breath grew shallow, knees buckling beneath him.
“Brisk effervescence... an unstable reaction... This must be phantom carbonic essence!” Aether hissed. “CO?, from the spirit of Carbonate (CO?2?).”
The realization came too late for the gasping student, who fell to his knees before another managed to drag him out of the immediate vicinity.
Another vial erupted violently, releasing a sickly yellow-green vapor that slithered across the ground. The instant it touched exposed skin, boils began forming. A nearby student let out a sharp scream as black veins spread across his arms.
“Rotten egg…” Valencia recoiled, covering her nose. “Only the breath of the Abyss smells this way! This must be Hydrogen Sulfide (H?S), formed from the essence of Sulfide (S2?).”
The afflicted student trembled, desperately wiping at his skin. Another tossed a neutralizing compound his way, allowing him to prevent further damage.
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A sharp hiss came from a third vial, followed by a sudden explosion of white mist. The surrounding air became acrid, stinging their eyes and burning their throats.
“This is the mark of a pungent battlefield scorched by sulfur’s wrath,” Thorne muttered. “It must be Sulfur Dioxide (SO?), the specter of Sulfite (SO?2?).”
As the gas spread, metal objects in its path began to corrode, darkened by an invisible rot. The students quickly moved back, avoiding direct exposure.
Then, blackened storm clouds began to gather above them, summoned by yet another reaction. A toxic brownish-red vapor billowed forth, choking the air with its noxious presence. The moment it touched the damp ground, it reacted violently, turning the dirt into a bubbling, rust-colored sludge.
“These brown fumes...” Cassius narrowed his eyes. “A demon’s breath, corrupt and tainted… this must be Nitrogen Dioxide (NO?), a creation of the Nitrite specters (NO??).”
Lightning crackled within the unnatural storm, feeding on the volatile energies below. The test site itself was becoming a war zone.
The first drops of acidic rain began to fall. The ground hissed as it mixed with the dust of an ancient battlefield, creating a murky, brownish-red fog.
Then, a sharp, vinegar-like scent filled the air.
Elder Yueh, still seated comfortably above, took in a slow breath before sighing theatrically.
“And now, the alchemist’s curse.”
The acidic rain mixed with something underground.
“No, no, no…” Cassius’s mind reeled as he realized what was happening. The rain was reacting with an old reservoir of decayed plant matter beneath them, forming an acidic swamp.
Valencia paled. “The scent of old vinegar and bitter pasts… this is Acetic Acid (CH?COOH), born from the lingering wraith of Acetate (CH?COO?).”
The weaker students panicked, stumbling blindly through the chaos. The trial had transformed from a simple test into a deadly, shifting battlefield.
But the smarter ones were already calculating their next moves.
Each reaction had revealed a key clue. They now had evidence of five distinct anions. But without proper confirmation, any attempt at neutralization could backfire.
The test had become a battle of intelligence.
Cassius turned to the others, voice steady despite the crisis unfolding around them.
“We need to confirm our deductions before we set up counter formations,” he said. “If we don’t, this entire place will be lost to the fumes.”
Aether nodded. “And we have very little time.”
But not all students were thinking of solutions.
Some had already begun to plot sabotage amid the chaos. If others failed, their own success would be guaranteed.
The battle of alchemists was no longer just against the reactions.
It was against each other.
End of Chapter.
