Blazing light flashed in Jude’s eyes making him temporarily blind.   His stomach turned as if he just experienced the worst bit of motion sickness he had ever felt.  He could hear Ellie not far away releasing her last meal, and Jude struggled to keep the bile down in his own throat.

Panic then hit him as he realized that he was still holding the cloudy crystal.  He had an urge to throw it away, but he remembered how it had controlled Ellie, so he focused on doing the opposite of what his desires were telling him.  Then again he could just be overthinking things but to be on the safe side he dropped the crystal only.

His eye sight was slowly coming back into view.  Now he could see a vast swath of green in one direction and a myriad of other colors in another.  Since his vision was taking so long to clear up, he activated .  The surroundings instantly cleared, though it looked like the flows of mana rather than normal vision.

He saw Ellie bending over by a tree as she was just finishing emptying her stomach.  Seeing the action made the bile rise once again in his belly.  It threatened to come out, but Jude resisted the urge.  He never liked throwing up.

His effort was rewarded as he got a notification stating that he got .  Instantly he started to feel better.  He turned off to find that his vision had cleared up as well.

They were now in an area that was very different from the desert.  It was the edge of a wood and some farm land.  Green life and moisture were evident everywhere.

Jude let out a relieved sigh. His biggest worry was that they would be stuck in the Beast Lands or somewhere dangerous like that.  His priority right now was to get to Geonar and retrieve the stone.  Jude wasn’t sure what it was, but it was almost a sense of destiny calling him to it.  He wanted to know what it would be like when he restored it.  Would it be some legendary item or just another quest item that disappears upon completion.  Or maybe it was something that would change the fate of the whole world.

But just because he was safe now, didn’t mean that he was anywhere near Geonar.  Jude of all people knew just how big this world was.  After all, he had studied it for many years during his time in the Digital Plane.

“I can’t believe you did it,” a weak but gruff voice shattered Jude’s thoughts.

He looked down to see the dark crystal talking to him and said, “What’s wrong with you? Use up all your energy to teleport us?”

The crystal did not respond.  It was either angry or pouting, and Jude didn’t care which.

“Don’t worry little one,” Jude said as an odd idea crossed his mind. “I will put you to good use.”

“What do you mean?” it asked, but now Jude didn’t explain.

He picked up the weakened crystal and noticed another crystal floating off the ground not far away.  When he saw it, the crystal flew to him and landed in his hand.  It was the very crystal he found at first.  Apparently, when you used it to teleport the crystal would come along with you.  And as soon as it touched his hand Jude realized why.  He could use it to return to the teleportation circle!  Of course, if he did he would be stuck yet again.  

But he couldn’t dwell on that right now. He had to deal with the dark crystal before it regained its strength.

The light crystal didn’t seem weakened in the slightest and was suppressing the dark crystal even more.  This made Jude confident in what he planned to do.  What he had to do.  This crystal was too dangerous to leave it on its own.

Jude opened up and began to view what it was made of so that he could change it.  This crystal was obviously man made, and all its properties were laid bare to Jude.  He found the most interesting one that allowed the crystal to effect emotions.  Somehow the spirit itself had changed the makeup of the crystal, changing the very inputs and outputs into a spiritual connection that affected any person who touched it.  This was also how it was able to attack and defend against Jude’s magics because there wasn’t a genuine attack or even an actual ghostly body.  It was all a projection.  That projection would receive a minuscule amount of feedback whenever it was damaged. This meant the ghost could keep fighting much longer than anything else could at its level but was also considerably weak if one attacked the crystal itself.

Jude then came up with an idea on how to seal this area; this would protect him and anyone else from the mental attacks.  Using he added into the to destabilize the inputs and outputs.  Then he linked in