Rise Ethereal Essence - Chapter 9

Unknown to the Dark Elf.

Within the crystal structure of the Azure tree, now called the Azure Hall, was a room. That room was overlooked by two elves. In a formation like the one used by the elves to make the azure tree their center were one hundred azure crystals upon individual stands. The stands were leaf-shaped.

The room was created along with the crystal structure, and only the elves that participated in the establishment of it had their vital auras within it. That included only the Azure Elves. The room was named Azure Vital Chamber.

Their attention was drawn towards a particular crystal. These crystals contained the vital aura of the Azure Elves. The crystals could not be used to impact the elf in any way but only registered their aura.

One azure crystal began glowing brighter than the rest. It belonged to the Azure Dark Elf, Ition. Ition’s vital aura started glowing brightly attracting the attention of the two elves.

This was around the time Ition encountered the pale green plant. After Ition calmed down from the battle the crystal’s glow diminished.

The two elves didn’t take it into consideration. They thought it might’ve just been some overwhelming feeling Ition had. Some of the other crystals would brighten occasionally, caused by a strong emotion impacting their vital aura.

The two elves disregarded the bright glow and continued overseeing the azure crystal’s.

A few days later, Ition’s crystal once again glowed brightly. This time it was more intense. It was quiet then it suddenly released a bright glow. It flashed brightly temporarily blinding the elves. It brightened then dimmed.

Within the fist-sized crystal was a strange clear stream running around. This was the first time they saw something similar. Seeing the importance of such an occurrence they called for an Azure Elder.

A High Azure Elder proficient in the study of auras rushed into the Azure Vital Chamber. The Elder observed the crystal and the new stream rushing throughout it.

“This is strange, how did another aura why is there another aura within its vital aura? Explain to me everything you two have seen within this chamber, quickly!” The Elder faced the two elves questioning them. The elves explained the strange occurrence a few days ago as well as the behavior of the other crystals.

When they finished their recounting, the Elder pondered for a while.

In the end, the only thing the Elder could conclude was either the infiltration of another substance, possibly consumption or a strange phenomenon.

As the High Azure Elder was rushing out of the room to inform the heads the crystal burst the brightest it ever was. It was no longer azure but now clear. The Elder turned around only to hear a *SSstkipshh*.

The two elves stood there dumbstruck, the Elder had its mouth wide open. They were unmoving.

Crystal powder sprinkled to the ground. The sight was exquisite but the meaning behind it was catastrophic.

Two elves rushed in pushing aside the elder that was dumbstruck. They were the High Azure and Dark Azure heads. The two leaders uncertain of the cause stared at the crystal powder on the floor.

“What happened!?” The Dark Azure Head, Azrhe howled in a frantic tone.

Both azure heads were in a serene room within the Azure Hall planning for the future and setting up leaders to teach different interests when they felt a disturbance. As the heads, they naturally had a connection with the entire structure.

They felt a loss within the Azure Vital Chamber and immediately ran towards the room.

The two elves began retelling the events they had told the elder.

The azure heads were stunned. Such strange events happened?

The High Azure Head, Assa sighed “If the azure crystal was still intact we might be able to find Ition but now its too late, we must tell everyone to keep a lookout.”

“Yes I don’t know what we can do with our limited intelligence but hopefully, Ition will be fine.”

Ition was zooming back. Ition was much faster than it originally was. The speed of its travels had more than doubled. As Ition sprinted back it felt strange fluctuations within its body. Every time it breathed a refreshing feeling assaulted its senses.

The feeling was like a boost that never ended.

The Dark Essence observed the many odd features resulting from its efforts. Every time the elf took a breath the energy in the air was swallowed and split. The atmospheric air went through the nose and lungs as the energy would be sent to the Elf’s Core. The atmospheric air was improving its body with each breath, every molecule was taken by the lungs and spread throughout the body. The core became more vigorous and pure. It seemed like the Elf’s Core would soon be brimming with the energy.

“What will the result be after it is filled?” Thought the Dark Essence watching the changes.

Three days’ time later the Dark Essence was expectant. A few more breaths and the core would be filled to the brim.

Ition was happily running, once again thinking of the praise that would be offered once it returned with the news. It took a deep breath.

Ition’s legs stopped, they no longer set upon the ground. Its body flew like a broken puppet. It was sailing through the air for four seconds before smashing head first into strong terrain. Ition smashed through the ground, tearing a wide crack in the ground. Its head split the way as its shoulders expanded the crack, while the inertia of its moving body propelled everything forward.

Ition stopped moving after crashing into the roots of a tree. A deep fissure about twenty feet long contained the unmoving body of the elf.

The Dark Essence was dumbfounded, before the final breath, the elf had been fine when suddenly its head cleaved through the ground creating a deep fissure.

Within Ition’s body was a different story. When the final breath entered the Elf’s Core, the brimming energy encountered an explosion. The Elf’s Core filled to the brim shrunk within seconds. Ition felt a tearing pain causing it to faint resulting in the following events.

Somehow, the shrinking of the Elf’s Core caused a vacuum to appear within the surrounding space. The two-foot sphere of crystal was now half a foot.

The vacuum caused energy outside to once again barrel through the elves mouth. The space was filled with energy then the vacuum would return repeating cycle after cycle.

It seemed like the effort of the Dark Essence didn’t go unnoticed. After being in a battle in the Elf’s Core for many days, the core had recorded the rhythm of the Dark Essence’s shaking, replicating the abnormal vacuum creation.

After many hours the process ended.

The Elf’s Core absorbed massive quantities of energy. The core now contained something like a liquid flowing within. The core still had the original crystal covering but within it were massive quantities of liquid that seemed to store more than its size. In the future, this liquid would be known as mana, but it was not yet time for that to be known.

The Dark Elf regained clarity once again. This time it was no longer ecstatic, but fearful. It was the second time being assaulted with this suffering. The first time was when it was dreaming peacefully, telling its clans folk about the serene lake and receiving praise. Now it happened again when it was speeding back to the Azure Center while thinking about telling its clans folk once again.

The conclusion Ition reached, was naturally, the lake was a sublime location that must not be divulged. The lake did not want Ition telling its clans folk about it so it placed a curse upon Ition. “Don’t worry lake I promise nothing will escape my mouth! Please have mercy upon this little one! This secret will remain sealed as long as I live.” Ition performed a prayer to the lake hoping it would release the curse placed upon it.

The Dark Essence could only look at the scene performing a metaphorical face smack in its mind.

A few days later Ition arrived within the location of the Azure center. A High elf noticed Ition and was stunned before bursting into to joy. It walked towards Ition exchanging a bear hug.

“Ow! Why is your skin so hard? It feels like I’m hugging a rock! You’re fine, did anything happen to you? I thought we lost you! Oh, what’s this rope around your shoulder?” Said the High Elf.

“I’ll tell you all about it with the rest, follow me Yune!” The Azure High Elf was called Yune. The elves were born with their names and as they had a special connection linking their minds, they naturally knew each other.

As Ition walked into the Azure center many elves naturally noticed and came to greet Ition as if they were greeting a long lost relative. Ition noticed their strange reaction but disregarded it as the result of its long disappearance.

Ition walked through the stair leading to the Azure Hall.

The azure heads and elders rushed out after hearing the commotion. They were surprised to see Ition. The last they remembered of Ition was its goodbye as it left to journey the distant reaches of the world and the destruction of its azure crystal within the Azure Vital Chamber. Everyone naturally knew about the events which resulted in their current actions towards Ition.

“Ition! My kin, you are well! What happened to you? Did you encounter some difficult or amazing incident?” Spoke Azrhe, completely relieved after finding Ition okay.

“Wow, what happened to your body? It resembles the hardness of rock and the texture of crystals! And your eyes, they’re no longer Azure?” Assa was puzzled staring at Ition.

Ition started sweating, fearing something might be exposed.

“Sure, let me tell you about my journey and things I’ve encountered!” Ition walked towards a room with a dome-shaped roof held by four large pillars exposed to nature within the Azure Hall. They called all one hundred elves to attend. There, it recounted the many experiences and things it witnessed including the battle between the pale plant and the making of the whip around its shoulders, excluding everything about the peaceful lake.

“Wow there are so many beautiful things to see away from the center!” said an intrigued elf.

“What happened to the essence within your eyes and why is your body different?” said another.

“This little I almost made them forget about that!” Ition thought. It had tried to use the battle and many experiences to fool the elves into thinking they caused the change, but it seems like it did not work.

“Yes, tell us why this happened.”

“This must be an interesting story.”

“Okay, okay.” Ition tried fabricating a quick story that seemed interesting and could be realistic enough. “Well oh! There was this one place far away. A massive crevice in the ground containing hundreds of roots passing through. As I was crossing the many massive roots, the ground where one end of the root I was crossing on gave away. The root fell out causing me to lose my stability and I fell through the dark crevice!”

Some elves questioned Ition’s story.

“How did you survive? Was it deep?”

“How did you get out?”

“Yes, yes, I shall answer all your questions in due time. As I fell through the darkness for about two days I finally saw the ground” Ition said.

“The ground? How did you survive after falling for two days? Wouldn’t you, I don’t know, EXPLODE?”

“How did you see the ground if it was completely pitch black?”

“That’s what I’m trying to explain!” Ition tried not to lose patience. “When I finally saw the ground, there were hundreds of orbs of light flying around. The orbs sensed me and gathered underneath me cushioning me like a soft leaf bed. They slowed down my fall finally letting me fall into a lake at the bottom. As I swam out of the lake I was cold, so I tried to dry my robes, but it didn’t work! The temperature down there was freezing. I had to continue with my cold robes. I walked in the opposite direction of the lake, for days! I finally reached the end of the wide crevice. In front of me was a long narrow pathway with glittering rocks. At the end of that pathway was a bright light! When I reached the end, the pathway opened into a massive room. In the center of the room was a massive Arcane Pome, it was one hundred meters large. I had to survive on the Arcane Pome for the coming days eating it whole.”

“Wait. You ate an entire hundred-meter Arcane Pome to survive?”

“No, let’s talk about the fact that there was a hundred-meter Arcane Pome at all.

“Why would you even need to eat the pome to survive? We only eat one every week and month and were fine.”

“Aah no, wait! It’s because of the cold that was unsupportable, and time flowed differently down there! Yup, I spent more than a year down there!” Ition explained the best it could creating new stuff up.

“Well, the point is, I had to eat the pome to survive and as I finished the last bite, A hole that was underneath the pome the whole time seemed to open up releasing water that filled the entire cave, passage, and crevice. That’s how my body changed and how I managed to get back! Oh, it was so hard for me.” Ition put its hand on its head acting like a wronged child.

“I see it seems you have had it tough. Why don’t you rest a bit now?” Said the Azrhe. Azrhe knew the story Ition told was not the truth. How could something like that ever happen? To not expose Ition, Azrhe played the sympathetic one.

“Well, either way, one of the other sun tribes will be gathering to bring the hundred-meter stones around The Crystal Tree into their center. Its something great to witness and must not be missed.” Assa was also speculative of the story but kept quiet as well.

The Dark Elf was in the background listening to the nonsense being spewed by Ition. “The first tribe will bring the stone back? This is something to witness.”

Help, my brain.