Azure Mountain loomed ahead, its three peaks stark against the moonlit sky. A constant haze hung over the mountainside, obscuring the radiance of a palace coated in blue and white splendor. Rachel's eyes narrowed, a storm brewing within them. “Regardless of the assassin's true origin, Azure Mountain will pay.” Her wrath wouldn't be contained, not even by a Guild steeped in thousands of years of history.
Tonight, however, she had a different mission. Her destination: a small mount some 500 miles distant from Azure Mountain. In front of her was a mana-barren mountainous realm, home only to mortals, devoid of strategic importance or any immediately apparent attraction. Yet, just a few days prior, upon summoning Angelica, a vision flickered – not a clear image, but a tingling sensation in her gut. It was a feeling she had learned to trust, a subconscious whisper of fate guiding her towards hidden potential.
It was exactly this ability, perceiving future serendipity — the fortuitous luck of others, propelled her meteoric rise from disciple to headmaster of the Order. She then launched a thirty-year war, plundering the serendipitous futures of neighboring factions to amass unimaginable resources and advantages for herself and Forbidden Harmony.
Victory after victory followed, but three decades of leadership dulled the thrill of mere opportunity. Only the rarest elixirs, legendary weaves, or magical relics could pique her interest. For thirty more years, she relentlessly scoured the continent, but the well of fortuitous visions began to sputter. Perhaps her insatiable pursuit had left little for others to find. A decade passed without a single noteworthy vision. Disillusioned, Rachel retreated into solitary study, determined to focus on deepening her own connection with the One.
Sixty years of seclusion felt like an eternity for mortals. A whole generation might vanish in that blink of time. For the treasures Rachel craved, however, it was mere dust settling. So, when a vision of Angelica's future unfolded, it felt like a jolt. It mentioned not just some ordinary treasure, but two Etherbloom seeds at this unassuming hill, named Mount Cottonwood.
Why there, of all places? The absurdity struck Rachel first, but she soon realized this might be a sprout from her own plans. After all, she had already orchestrated events to push Angelica towards a war with Azure Mountain.
The clues to the assassination attempt were frustratingly thin: just Azure Mountain and the poison. Unraveling the secrets of the deadly toxin had proven a formidable challenge. Azure Mountain became her only option, a daunting first step shrouded in mystery.
Investigating by herself was tempting, a chance to unleash her own cunning and power. Yet, Azure Mountain was a fortress. Their layered defenses, a labyrinth of arcane wards and illusory traps, made infiltration a near impossible feat. Their inner circle, shrouded in secrecy, living in a domain protected by a powerful guardian elemental, elusive to capture. Forbidden Harmony's spies, while present, wouldn't privy to information about the attack. Diplomacy was a fool’s errand. It run counter to the dark philosophy instilled in Rachel's upbringing, not to mention Azure Mountain's arrogant disdain for practitioners of forbidden magic.
War. That was the answer. Shattering the delicate balance of power, forcing Azure Mountain to expose their vulnerabilities, that was her best hope of flushing out these key figures and uncovering the truth. But a nagging question remained: why would war lead Angelica to Mount Cottonwood and the Etherbloom seeds?
The mystery deepened the allure of the treasure. The Etherbloom was too important to ignore. This legendary treasure promised not only complete detoxification from the insidious poison but also the potential to elevate her connection with the One Power, catapulting her to the coveted rank of Seeker of the One. Such a feat would secure her position as a revered figure across the continent, perhaps rivaled only by the enigmatic Skyfall the Divine, whose true power remained enigmatic.
Driven by this ambition, Rachel focused her psychic abilities, her mind reaching outward like an invisible web, sensitive enough to detect the flutter of a butterfly's wing or a worm's burrow. But such exertion was taxing, draining her mental energy with each pulse of her power. Yet, the allure of the Etherbloom, the key to her ascension, fueled her relentless search.
"Curious," she mused, her brow furrowing. "No discernible mana signature." Such a powerful treasure as the Etherbloom seeds should radiate with an abundance of magical energy. Undeterred, Rachel delved deeper into the earth with her psychic senses, probing the very bedrock, her mind venturing a hundred miles beneath the surface. There, she detected a powerful, chaotic pulse, a discordant symphony of raw, untamed energy.
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With a surge of focus, she pierced through the layers of rock and soil, her psychic sight revealing the source: a colossal Earth Elemental, its immense form composed of boulders and hardened clay, shifting and groaning in the subterranean depths. The creature's aura, a tumultuous symphony of raw mana resonating with the surrounding earth, spoke of a power both immense and unstable, teetering on the brink of collapse.
"Could this be Azure Mountain's fabled guardian?" Legends whispered of a primordial being, a manifestation of the mountain's very essence, bound to protect the guild's secrets since its inception. This ancient entity, rumored to have existed for millennia, possessed a power that dwarfed even the most accomplished mages within Azure Mountain's ranks. Its mere presence had been a formidable deterrent during Rachel's thirty-year war, a force she was hesitant to subdue.
"Why has the Earth Elemental ventured so far from its mountain home?" Rachel wondered, her brow furrowing in concentration. "Is it nearing its end?" Ancient texts spoke of Earth Elementals seeking mana-depleted locations to disperse their accumulated energy before their inevitable demise, a cataclysmic release that could reshape the landscape. For a being of this magnitude, such a process would flood the area with potent mana, transforming it into a fertile ground for magical growth. Yet, here, there was no such surge of energy emanating from the Earth Elemental, only an ominous thrum of instability and decay that radiated the unmistakable signs of impending dissolution.
While weakened, such a creature could still pose a formidable threat to Angelica, even with her considerable skills. "But not if she arrives a few months later," Rachel reasoned, a calculating glint in her eyes. "By then, the elemental would have fully dissipated."
But Rachel couldn't afford to wait. The Etherbloom seeds held the key to her survival and ascension. Weaves already forming in her mind, she moved her hands fluently, like picking melody on a harp, each thread a different note, building a harmony that would shape reality. Mana surged through her, crackling with energy as she summoned forth a vortex of wind and water.
The swirling vortex descended upon the weakened Earth Elemental, already crumbling at the edges from its impending dissolution. The creature let out a final, defiant roar, its voice a rumble of dislodged boulders and cracking clay, as it mustered the last vestiges of its earthen power. But its resistance was in vain. The relentless onslaught of wind and water tore at its form, stripping away layers of rock and soil. Pebbles and dust swirled in the vortex, the Elemental's once-mighty body disintegrating into a chaotic dance of destruction.
The earth groaned in response. Tremors rippled outward, the Elemental's dying throes triggering a chain reaction of seismic upheaval. The ground buckled and heaved, the once-stable cavern walls groaning under the immense pressure. Fissures snaked across the earth, unleashing torrents of water that cascaded down the mountainside, carving new paths through the landscape.
Rachel's eyes scanned the scattered remnants of the Earth Elemental, her psychic senses probing for any trace of the Etherbloom seeds. A flicker of anticipation sparked within her as she detected a faint resonance, a whisper of ancient magic hidden beneath the rubble. With a practiced gesture, she reached for her astral pouch, its iridescent fabric shimmering with the subtle energies of countless realms. The pouch, a conduit to distant dimensions, held a treasure trove of artifacts collected over centuries of cunning and conquest. Confident that the Etherbloom seeds, no matter their current state, would be secure within its folds, she focused her attention on extracting them from the Elemental's remains.
A pulse of psychic energy revealed a curious sight within the debris - two obsidian stones, nestled within a network of glowing roots that had burrowed deep into the Elemental's core. The stones, smooth and cool to the touch, pulsed with an energy that resonated with the earth's ancient magic. Carefully, Rachel extracted the stones, their roots still clinging to the remnants of the Elemental's essence.
Despite their dark exterior, the stones possessed a mesmerizing clarity, almost transparent. Inside, waves of majestic mana pulsed – a raw power unlike anything Rachel had encountered. A thrill of recognition coursed through her—these were the Etherbloom seeds, the very source of serendipity she had foreseen for Angelica. The mana that should have dissipated into the earth upon the Earth Elemental's demise had instead been drawn into these extraordinary seeds, their crystalline hearts brimming with potent energy. Legends whispered of the Etherbloom as a creation born alongside the One Power itself, imbued with unimaginable reserves of mana.
With a gesture, the astral pouch shimmered, its dimensional aperture widening to engulf both the precious seeds and the remnants of the Earth Elemental. The cavern floor, now devoid of the massive creature, revealed a gaping tunnel, its walls scarred with the marks of the Elemental's relentless burrowing. A path, Rachel realized, that likely led straight to the heart of Azure Mountain. "An unexpected gift," she mused, a predatory gleam in her eyes. "Azure Mountain has unwittingly opened its doors for me. It would be a shame not to return the courtesy.”