Chapter Forty-Three

Elysia tensed as they stepped into the palace proper, but yet again, nothing jumped out at her. It was like the place was abandoned but she knew there was no way it really was.

Annoyingly, the walls still blocked Ione’s senses and, with the lightning permeating her surroundings, there was no way she could sense another elemental. It was like trying to find a person in a crowd. Everything blended together.

Paranoid, she turned to retreat to the courtyard only to find the door closed without her noticing. She stiffened, then spun, scanning the room, finding it to be some meeting room. Dozens of chairs, all made of metal, with an alley through the middle made up half the room. The other half was mostly open aside from three thrones, the center one dwarfing the other two.

Even from across the room through the thick lightning essence filled air she could sense the thrones. There was an absurd amount of lightning essence pumping into those chairs enough that she wasn’t sure she was comfortable sitting on them. She didn’t want to overcharge herself after all. Already she could feel her body growing warm, reaching the limit on how much charge her body could handle.

A glance at her max charge caused her to stumble back a step. Her current max charge reached 25,000. The problem was her core vibrated with power, struggling to hold so many threads. The lightning bled off into her veins, stuffing them to their limit.

Despite the chance of leaving herself vulnerable, she delved inward and consolidated her lightning. Her aura exploded outward before she could calibrate her body, but she breathed a sigh of relief as the growing pressure vanished.

User’s split core has been consolidated. +50 Divine lightning, Lightning affinities, -70% Max Charge.

Her fear turned out to be true. The more she consolidated, the larger the Max Charge hit. Though this time she was almost grateful. Her Max Charge shot up at a dizzying pace, removing her low max charge weakness. At least, she hoped. Though each time she consolidated her lightning costed more to use.

Just in case she remained where she was a few steps into the meeting room, or she supposed it was a throne room as she waited for her charge to cross the 10,000 mark once more. It was crazy how much her Max Charge fluctuated on this mountain.

Just how powerful was her lightning now? She had to be reaching the limit on how many times she could consolidate her lightning.

Also, what about levels? Could her body even handle her lightning if she were to use it? Maybe she should have killed some lightning creatures on their way up. It would’ve been easy levels.

Though she didn’t feel comfortable killing defenseless creatures that didn’t cause her harm. She would happily exterminate all zombies or really any enemies she faced in dungeons but not harmless lightning creatures. Well, not harmless, they would probably kill a human by accident just from proximity.

Elysia shook her head and refocused on her surroundings, but nothing changed. Unless someone hid behind the thrones, they were alone in the room. She cautiously walked down the alley, head on a swivel just in case, but nothing jumped to her as she approached the thrones.

Now, up close, the thrones blazed in her senses. Nowhere near enough to overwhelm her, but she could see lesser elementals bowing down to the thrones even if no one sat on them. Something told her the primary point of supercharging the thrones was to instill that effect. They were impractical for anything else.

Despite knowing it would be stupid, Elysia poked the center throne, causing her finger to jerk back from the zap. Her pride spiked as her eyes narrowed on the throne. Some stupid throne wouldn’t beat her. Before she could think better of it, she hopped up onto the throne and laid back.

Following her example, Ione sat on the left throne, barely fitting.

Lightning essence pumped into her body, but as she thought it charged her body too fast. In a blink, her max charge reached 15,000, but at a cost. Her body warmed at a worrying rate. Instead of doing the smart thing and hopping off her pride pushed her to consolidate once more.

User’s split core has been consolidated. +50 Divine lightning, Lightning affinities, -80% Max Charge.

A wave of weakness hit her, causing her to slump in the chair, muscles twitching as more lightning pumped in. Unlike last time, the pressure didn’t relieve when she consolidated. In fact, it only grew worse as lightning pumped in.

In panic, she delved inward to find her core barely holding itself together. She found the limit her body could handle at the worst time. Why did she think it was a good idea to consolidate her lightning again?

To make things worse, the door behind the thrones swung open. Paralyzed as she was, she couldn’t do anything as the group of elementals strode into the room, led by a man practically shining with lightning almost on par with her own aura. Except unlike her’s, there was only a tinge of divinity proving her lightning was far superior.

On instinct, she called forth a single-strand lightning bolt aimed at the strongest elemental. Her core shuttered trying to power the strand but after a moment it succeeded.

Lava burned through her veins as she directed the lightning bolt forth. Her finger burned, then her ring exploded, sending a pang of loss through her, but terrified for her life, she put it out of her mind as the lightning bolt rocketed out of her hand, jamming her into the throne.

Far too powerful to control, the lightning bolt zigzagged wildly before impacting a lightning elemental to the right of her target, vaporizing the woman in an instant.

Dings sounded in her mind, but she ignored it as she called forth another lightning bolt. She must have leveled, as it felt slightly easier the second time, not that it was easy.

Again the lightning bolt exploded out, this time zigzagging off the mark even further but still scoring a hit on one of elementals several meters away from her target, vaporizing the man like her previous victim.

Strangely, they didn’t react to her attacks. As she readied her next payload, she noticed the only other elemental remaining besides the presumed heir trembled under her aura. Even if she didn’t attack, she doubted they could fight back.

Her blazing eyes locked onto the heir before releasing another lightning bolt, but like the others, it veered off course, vaporizing the last elemental underling. Refusing to give up, she readied yet another lightning bolt, but a spike of pain in her core stopped her. A shiver ran through her as she checked her core to find it vibrating on the verge of exploding.

Also sensing she reached her limits, the heir smiled. “As impressive as it is to survive on the throne without wearing a dissipater, you won’t last much longer. No wonder the high elemental wants you so bad.”

Ione, who lazed on the smaller throne, enjoying the lightning pumping into her body, jumped off the throne and shot toward the heir.

Before she could reach the lightning elemental, he teleported away with a shower of sparks. She pivoted on a dime, rocketing toward him again only for him to teleport once more, returning to his original position.

The scene played out the same way over and over again with the lightning elemental teleporting away at the last second dozens of times, though each time Ione got just a little closer.

Elysia could only watch as lightning forced its way into her body, pushing her already stressed body near the breaking point.

Upon sensing her mother’s distress, Ione broke off her hunt and gently grabbed her mother’s dress with her mouth, then tugged her off the throne.

Now free of the throne, Elysia’s spasming body calmed, but the damage was already done. Her core pulsed tripled the usual cadence, but with her veins already packed near bursting, there was nowhere for the lightning to go.

Unlike before, when she calibrated her core, it refused to stop pumping out lightning as it was near meltdown levels exacerbated by the never ending lightning flowing in even though she wasn’t sitting on the throne any longer.

The heir appeared next to Elysia, unaffected by her aura strong enough to kill a lesser elemental. Ione growled in warning, causing him to raise his hands in surrender. “I’m not your enemy. Actually, I’m your best friend right now. Your mother won’t last much longer if we don’t get her to an isolation chamber. It’s a miracle she hasn’t blown up already. If I were to sit on the throne without a dissipater, I would fry myself in moments.”

Ione dipped her head in understanding, then used her mouth to flip her mother onto her back. After shifting, she balanced her mother, arms and legs dangling down her sides. She looked toward the gourmet meal, refusing to let him touch her mother but also willing to give him a chance to help.

He jogged around the thrones back through the door he came from uncaring about the vaporized remains of his suppose it allies.

Ione followed him to the first door in the hallway. As soon as they entered, he closed the door, sealing them inside.

As a show of faith, he remained inside the room despite the pain flashing across his face as all lightning essence vanished. Unlike him, who had his aura completely suppressed, Elysia continued to radiate ridiculous levels of lightning essence straining the room.

Also feeling the effects of the room, Ione whimpered, then collapsed to the floor. Fortunately, even if he wanted to take advantage of their compromised states, all the heir could do was lean against the wall, strength leaving him.

The only one improving under the pressure of the room was Elysia. Her system began to stabilize as the excess lightning essence bled off, no longer replenished by the inflow.

Still, it took several minutes before control of her body returned to her, allowing her to roll off Ione and sit up. Even that act exhausted her. With her veins no longer clogged, her core dissipated, the rest of the overloaded essence dropping her out of the critical meltdown zone.

Elysia’s brazing bright eyes locked onto the heir who looked about ready to pass out. Unfortunately, before she could ask anything, he did just that, crumbling to the floor unconscious. Ione soon followed, sending a spike of panic through Elysia, but upon delving through her bond, she found Ione unhurt, just suppressed enough that her body needed to induce unconsciousness to protect itself.

Unlike the other two, Elysia’s lightning was far too potent for the room to completely suppress but that didn’t mean she was anywhere near strong enough to do much. Unable to stand, she crawled toward the door, afraid if they stayed any longer, they may never escape. She pushed on the door, but it refused to budge. Worry building, she scanned the door, but there didn’t seem to be any way to open it from the inside.

As a last ditch effort, she grabbed a lightning strand and forced it forward, finding it sluggishly respond. Power bled off the strand as it moved through her tender veins until it released through her right hand pressed against the door.

Barely a trickle escaped, but it was enough as the door clicked a moment later, then swung open.

Lightning essence slammed into her spasming her body, forcing her to pull the door closed once more, sighing in relief as her twitching body calmed.

Worried for her bond, Elysia crawled back to Ione, then used all her diminished strength to slide the unconscious feline toward the door. Fortunately, the smooth floor and Ione’s soft fur aided her in her struggle.

Like the first time, she fed the door with her lightning. Just as it opened, she shoved Ione through, then with the last of her strength she pull the door closed.

Elysia collapsed to the floor, leaning against the door. Relief filled her as she felt Ione regain consciousness through their bond. Before Ione barged into the room, she sent a series of images relaying her plan, prompting Ione to stand guard on the other side of the door.

Until she recovered, she would keep the lightning elemental hostage in the room. She wasn’t sure why he helped her, but that didn’t mean she would give him a chance to double-cross her in her weakened state.