Seika was the first to act by casting a 32-word spell, which removed the orb from the shield. She then placed it on a patch of solid gold plating on the deck of the ship. I could see the archon grimacing at the futility of their attempts, and yet still he moved his shining source of light right above them in order to facilitate their efforts.

The first one to attack my prison was Adel, who had already unsheathed his two archangel blades. He brought both of them down on the orb, so fast that I winced when they hit the dome before me. He continued slashing and smashing his two blades into the orb for a few seconds, and was panting heavily when he stopped.

The orb didn't even have a scratch. But instead of looking disappointed, his lips narrowed, his nostrils flared, and his eyebrows were pressed down in anger and determination.

"Seika, throw some spells at my blades," he said, and turned to her.

"While you do that," Kard said, and removed a vial from one of the inner pockets of his coat, "let me try something else."

Seeing them try to free me was making me feel both grateful and sad. I knew how pointless their attempts were. Seika was now casting offensive spells onto Adel's swords, Krysha was taking things out of her bag, while Kard was pouring a green luminous liquid on my indestructible jail.

For a moment, the liquid enveloped my view and the acid bubbled and created poisonous fumes as it made contact with the cold surface of the topaz. A few seconds later though, the surface was completely clear again and I could instead see the tips of Adel's now-shining swords facing me.

The discharge of stored mana from his powerful blades released a light so bright that I had to hide my face in the inside of my elbow to protect my eyes. The sound of the magical force hitting the orb was high pitched and reminded me of the angels' screams on the day of the liturgy. Regardless of how powerful the strikes were, the orb remained unscathed.

Behind Adel, Seika's outline pulsated with purple light, her long black hair floating around her as if underwater, as she was finishing what sounded like a lengthy incantation. She raised her hands and a swarm of small dark blue spots appeared around the topaz.

With a snap of her fingers, all of the minuscule one-dimensional blue spots converged on the orb with a deafening sound, which only multiplied in volume as more and more made contact with it. Despite the immense power of the spell hitting the orb from all sides, the glass-like wall in front of me looked completely unchanged once the blue smoke created by the spell was blown away.

Next in line was Krysha, who had removed a colorful garment from her bag. She placed the orb on top of the cloth, which appeared to be changing colors rapidly around me. I noticed Man, Seika's partner, was simply standing back, watching his companions with a sad face as he too realized the futility of their attempts.

"What is this fancy rag supposed to do to the orb, Krysha?" Kard asked.

"Myriam, have you seen one of these before?" she asked me, completely ignoring him.

"I haven't," I replied, curious to see what her idea was, though the hope in her eyes was not reflected in mine.

“Never mind, I read the description,” Kard informed her.

"This cloth will wrap around the orb," she explained, "and will start gradually applying pressure. Only a bit at first, but it will press harder and harder, until it breaks whatever is inside it. It is very important that you shout for us to stop, as soon as you see or hear the first crack."

"I will," I agreed, imagining exactly what would happen if I didn't.

"Here goes!" she said, and uttered the command word for the little piece of cloth that looked gigantic from where I was standing.

Immediately, the garment enveloped the orb on all sides and I was enclosed in a kaleidoscope of colors. The cloth itself was fixed in place around the orb, but the colors shifted rapidly.

In fact, they were so fast I had to step back a bit and sit on my bed, the only other thing in the space I had created, to steady myself.

A couple of minutes later, Krysha asked me if I was okay, and I calmed her by saying I was fine. The magical item must have been nearing the peak of its force right now, but the topaz had not budged at all.

A few moments later, I heard her say a similar power word and the cloth fell back to the ground. Adel charged at me again, but he stopped abruptly as the magical light above him disappeared and I started seeing him from above, illuminated only by the moon and stars.

The topaz orb was levitating, and I looked around me to find the culprit.

The archon had dropped the lighting spell and was holding up his left arm, pointing straight at me, while he swirled his right in the air. Before anyone could ask him what he was doing, dark clouds began moving rapidly above him. Upon more careful inspection, I noticed the clouds were moving in the same direction and speed as his right hand, which was now trailing circles around the sky.

The wind raged around us, while the clouds were now so thick that they had completely hidden the sky and the sporadic lightning in them was the only illumination. The thunder and lightning became much more frequent, and suddenly the wind completely died.

A second of peace later, the thunder also stopped, and we were all left standing in absolute silence and darkness.

The silence lasted only a few short breaths until the archon brought down his hand to point at me, and a web of lightning started forming above me, converging into a single point in the middle of the raging storm.

With all of the storm's force concentrated on a single point, a giant blue streak of lightning shot straight down at my crystal prison.

I was unable to react to the sudden and powerful flash of light that enveloped the orb, and I couldn't see anything for quite some time after the loud crack that followed the light had also died down. I tried rubbing my eyes, but perhaps seeing again would take some more time or maybe even magic.

"Are you okay, Myriam?" I heard Adel ask, his voice coming from above as before.

"I'm fine," I replied. "The light was just a little too bright, that's all."

"The spell I used is powerful enough to split a mountain," the archon said, as I cast a short healing spell on my eyes. "I only cast it so that you could see how futile the attempts to break the stone are."

"There has to be a way," said Adel, as my vision returned to see him clenching his fists and kneeling down in front of me. "We have to find a way."

"We could go to the university," Seika proposed, and put her hand on Adel's shoulder. "If we're searching for answers, that's the place we should be looking at."

"By no means do I want to dissuade you," the archon interjected, "after all, our people would be thrilled to know that their new saint actually survived The Divine Beast's attack. However, the university was the first place this spell was used, and since it was forbidden, no progress has been made."

"Then what about the monasteries?" Adel took his turn to ask. "Seika, you said many of them were created so that Elysians could continue their research away from the eyes of the Order. What if they have an answer?"

"They may be away from the eyes of the Order, Adel," the archon replied with one eyebrow raised, "but they are never too far away from my sight."

The archon now looked away from Adel and tickled the neck of his little bluebird.

"There has to be a way," Adel said, again and again, each time sending a knife of pain to my heart.

"I know how we might be able to break the orb," Man said suddenly, having been completely silent so far.

Seika turned around to face him, her eyes and mouth wide open with realization. For a second, I felt my heart beat a little faster as I shared her excitement.

"We should pay a visit to the Forge of Arirlun," Man continued. "If there is anything in this world that can break the orb, it is Arirlun's hammer."