The smile on Emile’s face dropped off as turned his attention towards the pillars and Amaya felt goosebumps on her arms as Emile’s aura changed. It seemed as if the air itself became heavier and Emile’s aura changed from nonchalant and easy-going to something more sinister.
As Emile cracked his neck and began to stretch, the shadows in the region began to grow and Amaya could have sworn that she heard what seemed to be a hundred hushed voices chant.
Emile raised his hand and from the shadows nearest to him black, inky tendrils stretched out towards him and began to gather around his hand and forearm. It turned his ebony skin into pitch black and as the darkness gathering on him increased, it turned from a shapeless cloud into a large, spikey gauntlet with sharped point at the fingertips.
The rest of the shadows began to gather a sphere in the air. The sphere came bigger and bigger as it shallowed more shadows until it was about 30cm in diameter. Emile started to reach towards the shadow sphere but stopped just before his gauntleted hand touched it.
“Sorry, I almost forgot. It’s about to pretty hectic here. Let me cast some protection”
He snapped his fingers with his non-gauntleted hand and a circle appeared below Amya’s feet. It was actually a set of 5 concentric circles with the largest one having a diameter of 2m, and inside each layer was a set of runic symbols.
Amaya was curious about what the circles were for and after a while, she began to feel the same reinvigorated and warm feeling she got from the liquid mana from before.
“That is a set of magical formations, the biggest one is to protect from collateral damage. The smaller ones are there to make you more comfortable. Just hold tight, this should take low.” Emile said as he turned his attention back to the pillars, but his eyes caught the giant snake and with another snap, a massive version of the formation appeared under the snake. “Also it will be a pain in the ass if that thing gets hurt.”
Happy that everything was in order, Emile went back to the black sphere. This time without hesitation he stuck his gauntleted hand into till it reached his elbow. At the same instance, his hand touched the sphere a massive portal opened in the sky. From the portal, a humongous clawed gauntlet reached out towards the pillars.
With the ease of a gardener plucking out flowers he grabbed one of the pillars and began to pull. The pillar barely resisted and the section that the hand grabbed broke off instantly. As the pillar broke, a banshee-like shriek sounded throughout the world.
As though nothing happened, Emile continued to the next pillar. And with a slow but meticulous pace, he pulled the pillars apart. The shriek increased in volume as his pillar broke and Amaya was forced to cover her ears.
Unfortunately for Amaya, the sound was the least of her problems. When Emile started to break the pillars, Amaya felt an intense pain pulse throughout her body. If it wasn’t for the formation below her feet, Amaya felt like she would have fainted instantly. But with the formation, she was barely able to stand.
In just a few minutes, the number of pillars was down to three. Interestingly, one of the remaining pillars was gold instead of black like the rest. Emile tore the remaining two black pillars and began to reach towards the golden but before he could reach it, a pair of crimson eyes opened in the sky.
“Impudent mortal you are interfering with forces beyond your comprehension” A loud and booming voice called. “Cease your actions before you condemn your soul to eternal suffering.”
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Emile paused as he looked towards the eyes. “Well, took along you enough. I was worried that this was going to be too easy.”
The eyes narrowed at Emile’s tone. “Pathetic insect, do you know who you are in the presence of? You are in front of an exalted being, whose power far exceeds your imagination. Down on your knees and beg for forgiveness.”
Emile sighed “I hoped you would be more reasonable, but I guess this is expected of ancient beings.”
“You can drop the act, if you are truly as powerful as you pretend to be then you wouldn’t be bonded to a newly awakened person. In fact, I would wager that you are a pale imitation of your true self.”
The eyes shook as Emile's words seemed to fight their target. “Hmm, it seems that you are not ignorant but you are foolish. Though I’ve lost nearly all my power, in this realm I still have more than enough power to deal with you.”
The eyes began to glow and two beams of energy were fired towards Emile. Emile's expression didn’t change as the beams of pure energy headed towards him. He took his arm out of the black sphere and the sphere shot towards the beams expanding into a massive shield.
The beams smashed into the shield but weren’t able to leave a scratch. The resulting explosion shook the surroundings and a wave of pressure hit the formations protecting Amaya and the snake. Fortunately, the formations held true,
The dust started to clear and as the eyes began to gather energy for another attack it paused as it noticed that Emile had disappeared.
“I would love to continue this little fight and see what one of Amon’s grimoires can do, but this isn’t our inner world and I would like to damage Amaya’s spirit any further.” Emile's voice sounded out near the golden pillar.
“I’ve removed the extra links but the bond is still too unequal. First,” Emile put his hand on the pillar “you need to return all the energy you took from Amaya.”
The golden pillar shook and exploded into countless specs of light, leaving only a thin string that extended from the sky to the earth. The specs of light flew out across the plane and fell like snow over land.
When some of it fell over Amaya, she breathed a sigh of relief as if something she had lost had returned to her. Not far away, the giant snake started to breathe in a massive amount of light specs. The light seemed to heal and invigorate it as its scales began to straighten out and gain a deeper colour,
The eyes roared in anger and tried to attack Emile but the loss of so much energy meant it couldn’t sustain its form. It glared at Emile as it disappeared. Emile for his part waved it away as if it was an old friend departing on a long journey. He even played it up by pretending to be upset and dapped his eyes with a handkerchief.
He waited for a moment to ensure that nothing came back. Satisfied that nothing wrong happened, he returned to Amaya. Amaya was lost in her thoughts as she revelled in her new state. She hadn’t felt this healthy since before she awakened her magic. She felt like she had been a broken vase, also losing water regardless of how much was poured into her.
She was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn’t Emile standing next to her. She jumped in place when she finally noticed him. Emile gave her a kind smile and pointed towards the giant snake.
Apparently, Amaya had been so lost that she didn’t notice that the giant snake had come towards her. The snake seemed much calmer and the baleful expression it had earlier was gone. It looked at Amaya with a peaceful expression.
Now, that the pillars were gone Amaya felt like she had gained a sense. She could now sense the mana around her but also felt two presences in the back of her mind. One seemed to come from where the pillars used to be, so that had to be the grimoire. The other came from the snake in front of her.
Different to the grimoire, the connection to the snake seemed more subtle but pure. Amaya felt the snake's mind brush against her and she felt its innocence.
She turned to Emile and asked him what the snake was.
“That is your avatar. So when a person awakens their magic, they establish a connection to the spirit realm. But our spirit can’t maintain that connection, so what happens is that it bonds with a native spirit. That bond has fewer conditions than the one between you and the grimoire.”
“The only conditions are that you will host the spirit in your inner world and the spirit will maintain a connection to the spirit realm.”
“I’m sorry to cut this interaction off so soon, but you are not ready to interact with your avatar. Also, your inner world needs to heal, and that will take longer if we are it in.”
Amaya looked around and noticed that dirt and grass had begun to appear. She was reluctant to leave but Emile had helped her and she trusted him.
“But before we go, I want to make you an offer.” Emile said.