Sazcha stared down at Zalia from where she stood next to the many-ringed sphere.
“And you thought it was a good idea to break the cage holding that thing why exactly? If it is some god like you say, we don’t know it wouldn’t just kill us the second we let it free. Did you not see all the pictures of storms chasing people engraved on this pyramid?”
Zalia stood up, groaning at how sore she felt. Not sore in her muscle or bone, but her very soul.
“I did and we don’t know, that’s true. A simple fact remains though and that is that this god does not belong here, it should not be trapped in this sphere. The nature gods might seem purposeless and vacant but I know that they serve a very important purpose. I know it is not evil, just as I know it isn’t good either. It simply is nature, the nature of the desert.”
Sazcha crossed her arms, remaining unconvinced.
“Sure but I’m not letting you break that thing free until you tell me how exactly you know it is what you say it is. How do you know it’s one of these nature gods you talk of.”
Zalia walked over to the sphere and held her hand over it. Floating along the line of power that was the Ascendant aura was a… nature. As Nateysta had once explained it, the aura of an Ascendant was not the same as a normal persons, it was their very being. What escaped only once every few seconds was the desert, the dunes, the hot breeze that flowed above it, the beating sun, the freezing nights and the desert storms. To Zalia, it was clear as day that whatever lay in this sphere could be nothing else and she had been around enough Ascendants to know.
“Can’t you feel it? To me, it feels like the desert itself resides in this sphere.”
Sazcha put her hand up next to Zalia’s, trying to feel what she felt. After a minute she furrowed her brow.
“Kind of? All I get is a sense of… home.”
“And home to you is?”
Sazcha sighed.
“Alright, point taken. Fuck it, why not? What could go wrong?”
Zalia put a supportive hand on her shoulder.
“That’s the spirit!”
Sazcha glared at her.
Zalia smiled.
“Get it? Spirit?”
Sazcha continued glaring.
“Anyways, let’s open this.”
She considered how she could go about actually doing that. Destroying it carelessly was certainly an option but Zalia checked around for some kind of manual first.
The lab itself was filled with old and dusty equipment, vials and books. The one that drew Zalia’s attention the most was a journal of a sort that logged the scientist's path to discovery written by none other than Et, most likely the Et that founded Et’s Way. What he had been doing out here she had no idea, until she read through some of the journal that was.
The man had learned of the Ascendant nature spirits that existed all across the world and had gone in search of one. He had found this pyramid that had been ancient even then. According to his research, it was an old building built by worshippers of the desert spirit dedicated to its being. He had used its connection to the desert spirit to draw it to him and capture it in this prototype device. Unfortunately, it had gone wrong and some of the spirit's aura was still able to escape by the slight miscalculation he had made. Zalia thought that was the brief flashes of light that escaped every now and then, it made sense.
As she was reading that, Sazcha was searching over the rest of the room. She slapped her hand on the page lightly.
“Ha! Knew it. Here, come read this.”
Sazcha took the book from her and started reading while Zalia went back over to the sphere. She was tempted to try jamming her sword into the rings, forcing them to stop. Or, you know, breaking her sword. She really didn’t want that to happen and something capable of containing an Ascendant might actually be able to do that too.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Alright, you were right then. How do you want to break this thing?”
Zalia was barely able to track the ring that had a chip off of it caused by her first attack. That had been as strong an attack as she was able to do in one strike, its power massively increased by the exponential damage it did depending on the target's missing health.
“I was thinking ‘violently disassemble’ is a better way to describe it.”
Sazcha rolled her eyes.
“Ok, fine. How do you want to violently disassemble this thing?”
Zalia pointed to the missing chip. Tried to, at least.
“I think we could just break a single ring at a time until the god is able to escape on its own. No need to destroy the entire sphere.”
Sazcha nodded in agreement.
“Alright, how you want to go about this?”
Zalia summoned her sword and instead of trying to jam the blade between the spinning rings, she slashed at it.
The blade bounced off with a deep vibrating hum.
“Well that didn’t work.”
“Apparently not.”
Remembering the only way she was able to damage the obsidian skin demon when she had been Bronze rank, Zalia turned to Sazcha.
“Try to hit me and let me parry it.”
Sazcha stared at her.
“What? Why?”
“It’s an ability I have, just do it.”
Sazcha struck at her and Zalia stepped to the side and into the strike, letting the haft of the spear slide down the blade of her sword. Using the strength from pushing against the spear and the increased power from parrying, she continued the blade in a glowing arc overhead to her side, hitting the sphere. It struck the outer ring, the one with a chip in it, and a whole section of that ring broke off, got caught in the lower spinning rings and was flung across the room at speed, embedding itself into the wall.
Now unstable, the outer ring slowly dropped, grinding against the next ring a few times before its edge got caught and the entire ring exploded into several pieces, all of which were flung across the room. One cut a slice across Zalia’s bracer as she raised her arm to block it.
The desperation and thirst for freedom coming from the trapped god was now easily readable in the room as its power was able to escape a little more. Hidden in the aura was also a little ray of hope.
“Alright, that worked even if it was a little dangerous.”
“Next then?”
Zalia nodded.
“Next.”
They got into stance and with another series of moves Zalia struck again.
Each of the next rings took three of four hits to chip or crack, with the next strike often enough to shatter a piece off of it. Breaking the symmetry of the rings seemed to be enough for them to become unstable and shatter the rest of themselves on their own.
Each time a ring broke, Zalia sheltered any exposed flesh of which there wasn’t a lot due to her armour, and Sazcha would shelter behind Zalia.
As the regular humming vibration of metal striking metal sunk Zalia into a rhythm, she started thinking about Hidey. The poor soul was still locked inside the cube that was his prison, not free despite the invasion being over.
Clang.
She had been thinking about how to find his true name so that she might free him and be safe in the knowledge that there was nothing anyone else could do to turn him against her ever again. Juniper would know, her soul floating around somewhere in Cormaine. Zalia hadn’t been thinking about it then but if she had simply used Juniper’s name to get her to reveal Hidey’s, she would have had it by now. There had been too many other things on her mind at the time though and she hadn’t realised.
Clang.
Another ring shattered and the intermittent light from the sphere became steadier, now shining for longer than it was hidden away. The aura got stronger with each broken ring.
They would find a way to get back to Cormaine eventually. In fact, Zalia wouldn’t be surprised if Ro was out there doing just that right now. She hadn’t spoken to him for a long time and had started to wonder where he had gone.
Clang.
He was safe out there she was sure, perhaps making his own connections with the other gods of nature and trying to get their assistance with destroying the demons and taking back Cormaine. It was a sister world to their own after all.
Clang
Three more strikes and the next ring broke. The room was littered with shattered pieces of rings, a few stuck into the walls or ceiling though many just laying about.
They both stepped back after the aura of the god got stronger, then didn’t stop growing in power. She had a feeling that the sphere had reached the point it could no longer contain it.
This was the moment of truth, the moment they found out if this particular Ascendant would be vengeful for the years it spent trapped.
The sphere stretched, the rings warping as the god pushed to escape. Zalia built a wall of stone in front of them just as a few of the rings collided, causing the entire thing to explode. The room was filled with a whirling storm of sand moving so quickly it left little cuts in Zalia’s armour and skin.
The god did not speak, the only sounds that of the storm and the feeling of victory and joy coming from it.