Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops XLII - "The Wisest of the Greeks"

The Alchemist watched the mercenary fall through the open hole in the wall and let out a sigh. He rubbed his hands together, then took a deep breath.

“Tityos,” the Alchemist said, watching his student gaze in curiosity at the bisected mercenaries. “Let’s finish our business here. Sif should be done with the Academy by now and should be returning with new acolytes soon.”

Tityos scratched his head. “New siblings?”

“We already have three Greeks,” the Alchemist answered. “But we’ll see where these two end up. Harriet and Roman were killed as acolytes before they could join a pantheon. No guarantee these new recruits end up as full-fledged members of our inner circle, either.”

And Sif wasn’t exactly known for having a silver tongue, either. He chose her because only she possessed the means to get into the Academy. And even she wouldn’t be able to stay for long there, either. By all means, she might’ve killed both Jackson and Shannen by now.

But either way, it would be a learning experience for all involved. The Alchemist and Tityos had their own business to settle here now.

The Alchemist arrived at Stefano’s door. Stefano, of course, had never been an acolyte - he had been a means to an end. His bookkeeping and connections proved valuable for making money within Elizabeth Pond. But beyond that, he served no purpose for the ultimate endgame of the Platonic revolution. The Alchemist certainly would’ve spared him when the time came, but Stefano had disobeyed direct orders. And as a civilized man, that necessitated punishment.

With Tityos behind him, the Alchemist touched a hand on the door. Blue Rddhi sparked from his fingertips as the door collapsed into transmuted sand. The two Restorationists stepped inside and frowned at the sight of luxury.

Stefano’s room featured a king-sized bed, beautiful paintings on the walls, and a host of empty platters and the leftovers of fine dining. He could watch a television, presumably placed there by his guards, from a comfortable position on his bed. Empty bottles of wine suggested the other activities he partook in during his alleged imprisonment.

As for the man himself, they found him smacking a large, brass candlestick into a locked window in order to make his escape. He only succeeded in creating several cracks before his two unexpected guests arrived.

Upon the sight of the Alchemist and Tityos, Stefano froze. His breathing grew fearful, and he inadvertently dropped the candlestick.

“H-hey, boss…” Stefano greeted, his voice cracking.

The Alchemist reached behind him and touched the doorframe they came through. A spark of Rddhi later, the door-turned-sand, along with the rest of the wall, had turned into solid metal. No way out now.

The Alchemist gazed around the room, a small smirk on his face. “Did they imprison you?”

Stefano raised his hands defensively. “They…they did. I'm imprisoned right now. You think I could leave this room whenever I wanted to?”

The Alchemist shook his head. “I suppose once you reached the top floor, there was nowhere further for you to go. You once sold drugs, guns, and goods for me. Did you sell information to make it up here?”

Stefano took a step back, stumbling to the ground when he hit the locked window behind him. “Well, I mean, I talked - but I didn’t know anything! You don’t have to kill me, I basically told them nothing!”

“You knew enough to be given luxury.” The Alchemist took a step forward, looking down upon Stefano. “You knew about a particularly booby-trapped microwave I specifically told you to destroy.”

A brief hint of confusion arrived on Stefano’s face. “The microwave?"

“I know you know nothing,” the Alchemist answered. He slowly walked around the room, grabbing a silver knife from one of Stefano’s trays, running a hand over it. Stefano’s eyes fearfully followed him around the room. “You think I would’ve let you know anything?”

Stefano realized the Alchemist was asking him a question. He tugged at his collar. “No, I don’t think you would’ve.”

The Alchemist kept his slow jaunt around the room, as if he was casually teaching someone. “You don’t know anything important. Having you here doesn’t affect any of my future operations. If that’s the case, then why do you think I’m here?”

Stefano spoke slowly. “About the microwave?”

“Indeed,” the Alchemist answered. “I’m here to kill you because you specifically disobeyed one of my orders. You can read and write and work with numbers. You’re civilized. You knew you disobeyed me. And yet you sold the microwave anyway for a nice little side profit.”

The Alchemist raised an eyebrow as Stefano started chuckling. The soon-to-be dead man was little more than a rat trapped in a corner now, and he was lashing out in his final moments with his words.

“You know, back when we still had the smuggling ring here,” Stefano said. “I used to listen to your little lectures to Harriet and Roman. About how knowledge is power and the wise have the right to rule and all that nonsense. Well, I got some wisdom for you. People are going to disobey you, whether or not you’re a king. That’s just human nature! What, are you going to kill every person who disobeys you?”

“Yes,” the Alchemist simply answered. “If that’s what the utopia of Kallipolis calls for, then that’s what’ll be done.”

Stefano wiped his face. “That’s insanity.”

“I’m the wisest man in history. You think obeying the order of someone who knows more than you - more than anyone - is insanity?”

“Killing anyone who disagrees with you is!”

The Alchemist seemed undisturbed by Stefano’s accusations. “If a doctor - someone far more knowledgeable than you in terms of medicine - says you must amputate a cancerous limb for the rest of the body to survive, would you trust the doctor?”

Stefano glared at him, but couldn’t find the words. "Yes," he admitted.

The Alchemist continued. “Now, if someone far more knowledgeable than you in terms of governance and politics says you must amputate a cancerous segment of the population for the rest of society to survive, would you trust that man?”

Stefano tried to argue back. “Doctors…they got licenses. They know what they’re doing since they have experience. But you, you say you’re the wisest so you know what’s best for a society. But where’s your proof? Why should we trust you?”

The Alchemist rubbed his chin, enjoying the word games. “What is wisdom?”

“It’s…when you know things.”

“That’s knowledge,” the Alchemist corrected. “Wisdom is knowing when to apply that knowledge. Knowledge is knowing how to set a man on fire. Wisdom is knowing when to set a man on fire. I’ll grant you that politicians nowadays, while knowledgeable, see potential dollar signs and fame and proceed to ignore wisdom. That’s why our country, if not the world, has fallen into such a state of disrepair. That’s why I’m here to fix it. I’m wise enough to know that the endgame of politics shouldn’t be personal gain. It should be utopia.”

Stefano clenched his fists. He heard all the screams and cries of dying men outside his room. “And what makes you think you got all that wisdom?”

The Alchemist chuckled. “The same reason you trust your doctor. Experience. I’ve traveled the world, seen every sort of peoples imaginable.” He tapped the East African medal on his chest. “I’ve even partaken in some utopia-building projects myself. I’m not one to brag, but it’s a simple fact that I’ve accumulated the most experience of any human who has ever lived in terms of life itself, in regards to both space and time.”

Stefano eyed the Alchemist. He didn’t look a day over thirty, perhaps even his late twenties. There was no way he had enough time to travel the globe or even learn everything he claimed to know.

When the Alchemist glanced at his pocketwatch, Stefano knew his last moments were upon him. He reached into his jacket and gathered his strength for one last word of defiance.

“You told me to make money,” he began slowly. “And I did.”

“I told you to destroy that microwave,” the Alchemist answered. “Yet you didn’t.”

Stefano’s voice reached a crescendo of anger. “So, when I sell a harmful product to a girl, I’m a criminal. But when you sell harmful products to an entire city, you’re a wise man.”

The Alchemist nodded at Tityos. The huge man slowly ambled towards Stefano, sand swirling around his hand to form a giant fist.

“It’s all a means to an end,” the Alchemist concluded calmly. “Our means are the same, if different in scale. But your end was the pursuit of profit. My end is the pursuit of utopia.”

“Pursue this!” Stefano screamed. Before Tityos reached him, Stefano unveiled a revolver from his jacket and fired at the Alchemist. He simply stood there as the bullets struck him in the torso. Stefano kept screaming and firing until all six rounds entered the Alchemist’s chest, until he kept pulling the trigger and only heard clicking in response.

The Alchemist simply looked at his chest in amusement. Stefano gazed at it in horror; the bullets entered his chest, alright, but none of them did any damage. No blood, no injuries - the bullets just happened to be lodged there.

Stefano felt chills all over. “Just what the hell are you?”

Tityos raised his sand fist.

“I’m this world’s savior,” the Alchemist answered.

Tityos slammed his fist down and crushed Stefano.

With that settled, the Alchemist nodded in approval. “Once I’ve civilized you, don’t ever go against me, Tityos, otherwise you’ll suffer the same fate.”

Tityos moved to salute the Alchemist with a fist over the heart. “I’ll never disobey you, Sensei.”

“Excellent.” The Alchemist moved towards the metal wall, leaving the flattened corpse of Stefano behind. “Now, we should meet up with Sif.”

Through the Rddhi, the Alchemist detected several mercenaries in the hallway aiming their rifles unsteadily at the metal. He then placed a hand on it; Rddhi flickered, and parts of the wall exploded out as shrapnel. The mercenaries yelled and groaned as the shards struck their limbs and torsos, temporarily disabling them if not outright killing them.

The Alchemist stepped into the hall, Tityos behind him. With no mercenaries offering any resistance, they peered down into the huge hole Tityos created to reach the top floor. The Alchemist placed an encouraging hand on Tityos’s shoulder, and then master and student leapt down into the hole.

The leap took them down several stories in rapid succession, all of them passing by in a blur, until they passed through the hole Tityos created in his fight against that man Osip on the fifth floor, then the hole Tityos created when he fell through the fourth floor. When they reached solid ground on the third floor, Tityos used his sand to cushion his fall, while the Alchemist simply landed with light feet.

Mercenaries investigating the debris on the third floor looked at them in surprise; the Alchemist touched some rubble, turning it into a smoke screen that covered their movements. Not wanting to shoot blindly into the gas since they might hit their own men, the mercenaries hesitated. During this moment, Tityos used the sand to smash through the third floor, then the second.

The two Restorationists arrived in the Shopping Center lobby. By now, all the citizens appeared to have been evacuated, with numerous mercenaries and even a few Rddhi users patrolling the lobby cautiously.

They all looked at the two men’s sudden appearance in awe. Another piece of floor fell over the two attackers’ heads; the Alchemist reached up to grab it, and as soon as his fingers touched, the piece of rubble turned into another smokescreen.

When the smokescreen vanished, the mercenaries and users cautiously approached the new hole in the lobby floor. They gazed down and saw several subterranean layers had been smashed through, broken pipes and ripped wires hanging loose, until a transmuted layer of metal prevented them from seeing - or pursuing - any further.