Adam stared at the dark gray crystal cube in his fingers, eyes studying the dancing ember that seemed to burn within.
“So, I just hold it to my chest and mentally accept it?” he asked. It sounded too… easy. It seemed to him that something like granting a magical ability that was powered by Primordial Energy would be a little more involved than that – not that he had any reason to believe otherwise. He was basing his ideas off an assortment of video games he played and comic books he read growing up.
“Pretty much.” Ava replied, a slight look of longing on her face as she stared at the crystal. “I can show you how if you’d like.” She offered, holding her hand out to Adam.
“Ava,” Caius chided.
“Just offering to help.” She gave an innocent smile and batted her eyes at Caius.
“You two have the oddest relationship I have perhaps ever seen.” Finn said. He shook his head slightly at her before turning back to Adam. “It’ll be fine, Adam. Trust me.” He flashed a toothy awkward smile at him.
Adam was honestly a little tempted to hand over the crystal to Ava. The blinding pain from the soul crystal was still fresh in his mind. But so was the sight of Finn manipulating the force of nature with his rings, Ava sending streams of healing that would have the doctors of his world foaming at the mouth, and Caius summoning two lightning blades out of thin air. He wanted that.
He took a long deep breath and brought the crystal to his chest. Umm. I would like to accept the ability you grant. Nothing happened for a few seconds as Adam just stood there holding the stone to his chest, feeling increasingly awkward with the other three staring at him. Then, the strange Primordial Guidance text from earlier popped up in his vision.
To accept the ability granted from this crystal, will a portion of your Primordial Energy into the stone. Warning: Once accepted, the skill cannot be replaced or forgotten, for better or worse.
“Do y’all have something called a Primordial Guidance system that pops up in front of you randomly to tell you about the world?” Adam asked.
“Primordial Guidance system?” Ava asked.
“Interesting. It must be a function of being a person from the newly enriched world. Truly fascinating.” Finn said. “I wonder if you could share it with us. It begs so many more questions.”
“Finn” Caius and Ava said together. The awkward teen shrugged in response.
“No, Adam.” Caius said. “We don’t have some sort of guidance system telling us about Primordial Energy and the world. I’d wager because our world has been enriched with Primordial Energy for over ten thousand years.”
“What did it say?” Ava asked.
“That I needed to will a portion of my Primordial Energy into the crystal to accept it and that I’m stuck with it once I choose it.” Adam said, looking at the other three for confirmation.
“Sounds about right.” Finn said. “It’s why anyone that cares about advancing past the Knight teir doesn’t accept a Tier 1 skill crystal.”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“Regardless” Caius continued. “You have an excellent stone in front of you. One that will supply a skill that anyone would be happy to have.”
“As long as it doesn’t turn you into a Stone Sentry yourself.” Ava murmured.
“Wait” Adam said, turning toward Caius and Finn. “Is that possible?”
“Anything is possible.” Finn said calmly. “Highly unlikely though.”
You’re going to be fine, Adam.” Caius reassured him. “Just imagine the energy in your body is gathering behind your chest and reaching out to wrap around the crystal.”
That was a little ominous. None the less, Adam had come this far, might as well keep going. He focused on the Primordial Energy in his body. After Caius had explained to imagine the Primordial Energy flowing through his body, he could just vaguely sense it inside his body. Like every cell was constantly soaking up and releasing the strange energy inside of him.
The energy responded, flowing to the point on his chest where the crystal sat waiting. Energy collided with crystal, the two merging before his eyes. A blinding light pulsed from the crystal cube as it began to sink into his chest. Adam’s vision narrowed - his senses were drowned out by a chorus of white noise that consumed his mind. Ava, Finn, and Caius became distant afterthoughts.
He felt as if his feet were being lifted from the ground, his mind spinning in a euphoric state of emptiness while simultaneously being over stimulated by a flood of emotions and images. He saw his parents and old SEAL team. His brother sitting on their old front porch. A snow covered mountain. The monstrous figures from his dreams and hallucinations. He knew he should be concerned, more worried about whatever change his body was going through, but he couldn’t bring himself to be bothered with such pointless emotions at the moment.
His vision blackened, but Adam never had the sense of losing consciousness. Instead, he found himself standing on the top of a snow-covered mountain, jagged rock poking through the ice like a frozen stone crown. Behind him, he could just make out the peaks of other mountains far below him, barely peeking through the clouds.
Stone protruded in a semi-circle in front of him, rising in a steep slope toward the heavens. At the base of the stone wall before him sat a stone throne. It was massive, yet simple and unadorned. In the throne sat a massive figure that Adam instinctively thought of as a Titan. It wore resplendent golden armor with onyx accents covering every part of its body, a long white braided beard falling over its breast plate. His helm sat in his lap, leaving the Titan’s piercing blue eyes to peer down at him like frozen sapphires glowing in the night.
In his right hand he held a war hammer that was larger than Adam. A golden handle that ended in an onyx head of stone and metal. The base of the hammer’s handle was an onyx pommel with a long spike that pierced the ground, holding it in place. On his left was a golden tower shield embellished with accents of onyx.
An overwhelming pressure exuded from the Titan. Like the weight of the world was descending on Adam mixed with a bone freezing cold that made him feel like he couldn’t even lift a finger. He knew he wouldn’t have a chance at remotely harming this being even if he had a century to attack it uninterrupted. Still, Adam felt no fear. No sense of danger came from the Titan. It was as if his mind was being calmed by an external force.
A voice echoed through the clearing, deep and rolling like thunder over wide-open plains. It shook snow free from the tops of the peak behind the Titan that caused a mini avalanche to fall.
“At last, my eternal struggle has come to an end. I can only hope that it was enough time for the others,” the Titan said, eyes fixed on Adam.
The voice sounded familiar to him. Like the echoes of a sound he had been hearing for years, though he thought it only in his head. He looked up at the Titan, eyes studying every part of the monstrous figure.
“It’s you. It’s been you all these years.” Adam said, mind racing as he connected the Titan in front of him to one of the monstrous figures in his hallucinations.
The Titan leaned forward on his throne, brows heavy and eyes soft with a burden he had seen in many soldiers faces before. The desolate face of those asked to give too much of themselves, and who in turn lost themselves. A face that he was intimately familiar with.
“I am sorry, child. It is your burden to bear now.”
It reached a massive finger forward Adam who was unable to move. All he could do wasere while the finger that was as large as his entire body creeped toward him until it came but a fraction of an inch away. It hovered there - the Titans face strained as if he was trying to fight something off for just a few moments longer.
The finger tapped him lightly at the exact spot the crystal had been absorbed into his chest. The glowing warmth returned as light poured from his chest, pulsing in a blinding rhythmic beacon of blue and white light that reflected off the snow around him until it slowed and eventually winked out.
When the light was gone, Adam looked back on the Titan in his stone throne, the Titan’s eyes now closed. His skin a dusky grey where it had been light tan before. He felt a weight settle over him at the scene, aware that he had just witnessed the death of a being far more powerful than anything he could have ever imagined.
Adam wasn’t sure how long he sat there for, but he was content to do so for as long as he was allowed. He felt like he had just been given an incredible gift, though he didn’t know exactly what. Still. He felt like he owed it to the Titan to pay his respects. It had clearly given its life for a cause greater than himself, and that was something Adam could understand and respect.
Inevitably, his vision darkened once more and then returned a few seconds later. He found himself standing in front of Caius, Ava, and Finn in the exact positions they had been in when he started.