The Godsfall Chronicles

Book 7, Chapter 53 - Crystal Spirits

“Here?”

Cloudhawk was led to a huge pa.s.sage barred by a set of gates . It delved deep into the earth and at the far end, he could make out the faintest bit of light .

Husk[1], the leader of the Eternal, gave an affirmative nod . Belial was down there, but what he was up to was a mystery .

The Eternal explained that they could only lead him here . No further help was possible . So long as Belial held the Black Heart, they had neither the courage nor power to rise against him . The foul relic had the power to override their thoughts and turn them into mindless, ever-living zombies .

What’s more, the Heart could compel them to act on his command . They could be a hundred times stronger than they were now and it would mean nothing in the face of the demon . Below, where other defenses lay, the Eternal would be more of a detriment to Cloudhawk than a boon .

After some thought, Cloudhawk saw the logic . It wasn’t a problem, because he had no choice . Despite the dangers he knew what he had to do .

“We’ll figure it out as we go along . Let’s head in . ”

Him and his crew stepped into the tunnel and made their way deeper into the earth .

By the time they reached the distant light they discovered that it wasn’t an exit, but an entrance . Cloudhawk had used a significant amount of time and resources carving into this crystal and had created a fissure . It was insignificant to the crystal as a whole, but plenty large enough to allow pa.s.sage .

The Eternal claimed this crystal had formed over thousands of years . In that time it had continued to grow until it spread out all through the desert . With time it would continue to spread and grow firm until it was hundreds of kilometers wide – all one solid piece .

It was a strange formation . Who had ever seen a single crystal that was a hundred kilometers in diameter? Something that large couldn’t be called a crystal anymore, it was like its own small planet . The purity of it was also infinitely close to perfect . It was dense and uniformly shaped, like a work of art .

Without a doubt, something this flawless was not natural . It had to be a cover for the G.o.ds’ secret base here on earth . The seed they left behind . Could this ma.s.sive crystal be the s.h.i.+p that would eventually burst from the ground? The whole thing stank of divinity!

But as Cloudhawk thought about it, he second guessed the theory . When he thought back to the memories from the crystal, he remembered that the s.h.i.+p they sent to the planets was a single drop .  

Those teardrop-like s.p.a.cecraft were simple, no more than a thousand meters long and seemed more liquid than crystal . This stuff in front of them was different . It was much, much larger . What’s more, it was packed with more energy than Cloudhawk could believe .

It was even more condensed than eboncrys . The black crystals they used for energy grew from the energy of the universe . They were a strong driving force for production and could improve the destructive power of whatever it joined with . It’d become the core driving his Alliance’s progress .

Both cursed spar and eboncrys were crystals formed from energy . Eboncrys, in a way, was just a more efficient sort of coal albeit with more condensed energy . This so-called cursed spar was different . All the energy it contained was virtually incorporeal, meaning that even if it were released all at once it wouldn’t have much of an effect on its surroundings . It couldn’t be used to power a factory or strengthen weapons .

The power inside cursed spar was mental energy .

Mental energy wasn’t measured by physics or biology . It was a higher form of energy that didn’t directly interact with the physical world . What it could do was reach into the deeper parts of matter and change its fundamental resonance . It affected and adjusted things on a quantum level .

That was how a demonhunter’s power worked . So in other words, cursed spar was mental power in highly condensed form . If Cloudhawk gathered all the demonhunters of Skycloud, the sum of their mental strength wouldn’t add up to one one-thousandth of this crystal . If all of this crystal’s power was released it might not offer much in the way of energy, but the mental storm would be apocalyptic .

Spectacular!

Cloudhawk led the way . Frost, Autumn and Abaddon followed . All at once it was as though they stepped into a dream . The crystal was similar to ice in how light warped through it, only it clung to the surface like a halo .

“Careful . Something’s not right . ”

Cloudhawk felt something drawing him . It was like his soul was trying to leave his body and become devoured by the crystals . Powerful mental energy thrummed all around them, so dense that it was overwhelming his mind and blunting his danger sense .

“Cloudhawk, are these crystals and the spirit orbs the same?”

Autumn asked the question, and it made sense that she would make this connection . In one of the worlds Cloudhawk traveled to, they found those spirit creatures whose essence contracted into a spirit orb when they were destroyed . They were the same, dense collections of mental energy .

He’d worked closely with Autumn and the Shepherd G.o.d, using these crystals to enhance his power and even affixed them to relics he created . Autumn immediately made the connection based on this experience . And she was right – the similarities were striking .

It would take all of the Elysian lands hundreds of years to mine all this crystal . The value would be incalculable . After all, mental energy could do anything! It could change matter at the desire of its wielder .

An example that perhaps didn’t do it justice, was to call this crystal a universal voucher . You wanted water? Done . Soil? Easy . Gold? More than you can use in a matter of minutes . Food? There at your fingertips .

There simply was no way to put a price on a crystal this size . If this could all be excavated than all the desires of every living thing on this planet could be realized . The discovery of this crystal was of huge importance and implications .

“Yeah, more or less . But there is a difference,” Cloudhawk revealed . “I can feel that there’s something else in these crystals other than mental energy . I can’t tell what exactly, yet . We’ll have to take some back with us and examine it more closely . ”

This place had to have some connection to the divine seed . According to Abaddon, they called it Source . Cursed spar was what the locals called it, but its true name was ‘The Source of G.o.ds and Demons . ’ Source crystals . They were the embryos from which those mighty creatures were conceived .

“We’re under attack!”

The warning came from Frost, who was taking up the rear of their party . All of a sudden Cloudhawk felt a s.h.i.+ft in the air and a number of black shapes closed in . Somehow they’d managed to surround them without him noticing .

What the f.u.c.k? Did Belial set up an ambush?

Cloudhawk raised his left arm and a s.h.i.+eld of white light was summoned . The attackers crashed against it then shattered as though they were made of smoke .

“Strange,” Autumn whispered . “They aren’t real!”

As she made the observation, they watched the smoke get sucked into the surrounding crystal . It used the spirit power of the crystals to reform its body .

Abaddon waved his hand and a volley of sand arrows was formed . However, as they struck the crystal surface they left only tiny scratches a few centimeters deep . Meanwhile, the creatures within could move through the s.p.a.ce at will .

This was a problem . The crystals were hard a diamond . Since their attackers weren’t wholly physical they could move through the crystal surface without issue . The s.p.a.ce within the Source was their world, and they could lash out at then as they pa.s.sed without fear of reprisal .

A few moments later they could see more of these black shapes hiding within the walls .

Suddenly Cloudhawk and his allies found themselves neck deep in trouble . They were in enemy territory with no way to fight back . Even Cloudhawk for all his strength couldn’t destroy the crystals and get to the smoke .  

“This is a problem,” hissed Abaddon . “We appear to be surrounded . ”

Autumn couldn’t shake the burning fear that the Eternal had led them into a deathtrap .

1 . His name is ‘black husk’, but I dropped the black . Husk was plenty descriptive .  

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