I tumbled to the floor as the building continued to shake and heave. Only Donte remained standing, rooted in place by the crystal encasing his arm. The boy was desperately struggling as he attempted to free himself from the shining stone, but no matter what he tried, it was futile.
Blood poured from the needles piercing Donte’s arm and flowed into the fragment of stone. Donte tried using his innate talent again and again, but every time he tried, the crystal devoured that too. His destructive power flowed became nothing more than a harmless wisp of smoke before that too was consumed by the stone. The small fragment of stone appeared to be a black hole as it devoured everything Donte had without any sign of stopping.
Using the pedestal in the center of the room, I was able to force myself to my feet. Once again, I tried to stab the sliver of stone with my dagger, but once again nothing happened. I looked at Donte hopelessly and I could see him staring back at me with terror in his eyes. His energy was almost completely drained now. He started to look pale from blood loss. There was nothing left for the stone to take.
For a moment, I considered the unthinkable. If I could not cut away the stone, I could always cut away Donte’s arm. I hesitated, unsure of what to do as I gripped my dagger tightly.
Before I could steel myself to attack my friend, the shaking in the room came to a sudden halt. The bright light emanating from the broken shard of stone began to condense until it looked like a ball of molten glass. The entire room fell dark as all the energy pulsing through the building walls began to dim. All that remained was that one floating marble of light.
“What… What is this?” Donte stuttered.
The ball of light floated closer and Donte instinctively flinched away. However, with his hand still encased in crystal, there was not far for him to go.
My arm fell limply to my side as I stared at the small ball of light slowly floating towards Donte in disbelief. I had seen something similar to this before. When my teacher controlled the Preateritum ruin of the Fifth Division, he used an orb of light that looked exactly like this except with a different color.
My heart instantly began to calm as I realized what was happening here. I sheathed my dagger and placed a hand on Donte’s shoulder.
“Try and relax. It will not hurt you.” I said softly.
“But… But my arm…” Donte whispered.
I held Donte firmly in place as the marble of light slowly floated closer and closer to the boy. Donte looked at me with a mixture of confusion and fear, but I just smiled at him and nodded.
“It will be ok, trust me.”
Donte Grit his teeth and nodded as he stared at the ball of light floating towards him. “I trust you.”
The light finally reached Donte, gently resting on his forehead for a moment before seeping into his skin. Donte’s eyes glazed over as all his expressions faded away. The room fell dark. After a few seconds, the crystal encasing Donte’s arm began to retreat as the needles retracted.
No longer supported by the crystal holding him in place, Donte limply collapsed against me. His gaze was still vacant as he stared ahead without blinking.
My dad stepped forward, helping me lift the ragdoll weight of the boy that nearly made me tumble to the ground once again.
“Is he going to be ok?” my dad asked as he gently laid the boy down on the ground.
“I hope so,” I replied with a glance at the floating bit of broken stone on the pedestal. I then looked down at Donte’s arm. I was relieved to see that despite how much blood he had lost, there was very little actual damage. The needles had been small and precise. His arm would probably be bruised and sore for a while, but there was unlikely to be any permanent damage.
“What happened to him?”
I hesitated for a second before answering. “I think… he just became the master of this place.”
“You think?”
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I nodded and sat down next to Donte. I brushed a stray hair out of his face as he looked back at me with a vacant stare. “I hope so. I have never seen the process personally. I did not know it was so brutal, but I have seen that orb of light before. I just pray that the core being shattered does not have some adverse effect on the process and that he will wake up fine.”
My dad sat down next to me and Charly ran over to treat Donte’s wounds. There was not much that could be done with most of our supplies in the wagons outside, but we still cleaned up all the blood and wrapped his arm in some torn cloth.
A few minutes passed without Donte waking up and I started to wonder if perhaps I was mistaken about what happened. If I made another mistake here, I could have seriously hurt Donte, or worse. Still, I decided to trust my judgement and wait. After nearly half an hour of silence, the mercenaries left to continue to exploring the building in hopes of finding anything else that might be useful or another way out. I decided to continue to sit by Donte’s side until he awoke.
It was only when one full hour passed that Donte shot up in a panic. He leapt to his feet as his eyes were immediately drawn to his right arm. Donte let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was no longer encased in crystal. He winced a bit when he tried to rotate his wrist, but had a bright smile on his face when he saw that everything was still working.
“How do you feel?” I asked as I lightly touched his arm.
“My head feels like it was smashed with a hammer, but I think I am fine,” Donte said, but less than a second later he wobbled unsteadily for a moment and collapsed against me for support. With his head resting on my shoulder, Donte’s eyes went wide. “What is this? I can see… everything! Every brick and room in this entire building feels like it is part of my own skin. I have never felt anything like this before. What is happening?”
I let out a sigh of relief as my guess was confirmed. “When you touched that shattered stone, you activated something. Preateritum ruins all have a master, a person that controls everything here. You are now that master.”
“I think… I think you are right,” Donte said and he pressed his left hand against his head. I could see him struggle as he tried to focus. “I remember. When that light entered my head, there were… words. They were not in any language I had ever heard before, but I understood them. They told me the history of this place, about how it existed to discover the unknown, to preserve that knowledge, and freely pass it on to others. There was also a name… Dragon’s Nest.”
The moment Donte spoke that name, all the veins of energy running through the building that had gone dim when Donte had been in contact with the crystal suddenly flared to life. The room pulsed with a brilliant blue glow that seemed brighter than ever before. The stone floating on the pedestal began to beat like a heart, sending energy throughout the building.
Donte looked around in amazement as he forcefully pushed himself to stand on without my support. “I know what to do,” Donte whispered. His eyes began to glow and with them, so did the fragment of stone in the center of the room.
Once again, the building began to shake. This time, however, it was even worse than before. I was instantly thrown to the ground along with the rest of my family as Donte stood in the center of the room with both his hands held out to the side. The cracking of stone and the familiar sound of rocks collapsing echoed from outside.
“Donte, what are you doing?” I shouted, but Donte did not reply. I stumbled a few times in an attempt to get closer to Donte, but when I looked into his eyes, I once again saw the glazed-over look that he had earlier. A small blue orb partially appeared in his forehead, almost like a third eye. I shook Donte and even slapped him but he did not acknowledge anything around him at all.
I cursed loudly as the building heaved and I was once again thrown to the floor. With Donte still not responding, I decided to see what he was doing for myself. Stumbling more than once, I found the door out of the back room and crossed the large chamber at the front of the building. Before I even got close, the giant front doors swung open of their own accord, letting me see into the dark cavern beyond.
Outside, the walls of the deep chasm had begun to collapse as the entire building, as well as a good portion of the stone floor underneath, tore free from the restraints of gravity and began to float upwards. The sound of breaking rock was deafening as giant masses of stone were unable to stop the buildings upwards ascent and tore free from the ground. I quickly ushered Mordere and Mitis inside as falling rocks nearly crushed our family’s wagon. The horse belonging to the mercenaries also followed as he ran past me in a panic.
With everything safely inside, I watched the entire structure under our feet continue to steadily rise. Even when the top of the towers reached the roof of the chasm, the building did not even slow down. The towers pierced the rock with ease, causing a mountain of rubble to collapse around us. Luckily, this place had been made to withstand far worse than this and even though giant boulders slammed into the roof of the building, we were safe inside.
The towers continued to push their way past the mountain of rock and dirt without any sign of stopping any time soon. My mom, dad, Charly, and the mercenaries all eventually joined me in the main hall and marveled at what they were seeing.
“Wren, Is the building flying?” Charly asked in disbelief. I nodded numbly and Charly stared out at the collapsing chasm in amazement.
After several minutes of the mountain collapsing into the chasm below as the building rose, the first rays of light began to shine through the ceiling. Within moments, we broke free of the stone and rubble and started rising into the sky above.
The building did not stop rising until we were well above the treetops. I crawled over the mass of debris that followed us out of the chasm and walked outside to get a better look. When the building had begun to rise out of the ground it had taken a massive chunk of the cavern's floor with it. This made the entire building look like a castle on a floating island in the clouds. I could see the entirety of the mountain range laid out in front of us and felt the wind blew through my hair for the first time in days. The sun had just begun to rise, painting the clouds surrounding us in a beautiful orange glow. It was a breathtaking sight that left everyone speechless.
Tearing my eyes away from the sight, I turned back to the entrance of the castle. Donte walked out of the back room with a sheepish grin on his face. He moved past my family and climbed up a large boulder to look out at the view around us. He took a minute to take it in before he turned to me and smiled. He stretched both his hand out wide and the entire building began to glow as he spoke.
“Everyone, welcome our new form of travel, Dragon’s Nest!”