Arthur's Point of View

Crawlana

My eyes darted about waiting for a response of any kind. Any hint, any flicker of magic that might appear. The magic had dispersed, and all forms of attacks, had come to a halt. If they acted out of fear, I could understand the sudden hostility, but there was no point in keeping an enemy alive if they would hound us in the future.

“In honor of my daughter, I will even name it the Mariana Trench as it resembles her name, and it holds some manner of meaning to me.”

Streams of ice launched at me from every direction. Without moving, they either were sucked into my orb, or they shattered against the multitude of gravity pillars surrounding me. After hundreds, maybe even thousands of those lances failed to hit me even once, everything came to a complete stop. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of my orb break the buildings below as they floated up to me.

A woman’s voice echoed through the area. “Stop.” In the distance, a white aura carried by almost every High Elf so far, appeared with flickers of blue. “Come to my temple.”

Sure enough, there was a large temple in the distance. It was very different compared to Helmsforth’s. Shimmering as if calling to me my orb dissipated as I studied the temple in question. One thing stood out above all. The temple was separated from everything else. A lone building in the sea of this kingdom.

The light was blinding as I watched but dared not to look away. “This kind of seems like a trap…” I commented and waited for some manner of reply, but none came. “Very well. Maybe you finally found some sense.”

As I landed on the temple where the door was, the woman’s voice spoke to me. “Touch the construct.”

In the middle of the door of light that had opened leading to the temple was a small construct as she said. It appeared magical in nature. Her white aura overflowed from the door creating the light, but a blue, glowing, formless, blob kept shifting in the middle of it. From an orb matching the one in Defiance, to the shape of a star.

Doing as instructed, my body immediately transported as everything around me shifted. Appearing in a completely new location, I looked around to see the temple, city, and kingdom had all disappeared. Now I was at the top of some manner of pyramid with the dark depths of the ocean surrounding me. Looking up revealed no form of light, but there wasn’t any light coming from any direction. The only light came from the magic crystals floating around casting a faint blue glow.

“Interesting…” I commented as my eyes finally fell on the form standing on the other side of the platform. “As are you.” Speaking under the water was difficult, but I didn’t exactly have a mouth, so I was hoping she could hear me.

Another High Elf, or Aridian, stood before me. She worm garbs that reminded me of the Aridian from Dwardew, but in the form of a dress. One that seemed old, yet nonetheless, beautiful. Blue hair danced in the water while blending in with it in the flickering of the lights. Her eyes were a light blue that matched her hair. She reminded me of the polar opposite in color coordination compared to her ward. However, she was as beautiful as every other Elven woman I had seen till now.

“Will the High Elf speak to me now?” I asked her.

She instantly frowned. “High Elf?” The woman repeated in disgust. “You dare refer to me as an Elf?” So, she could understand me despite us being underwater.

I would’ve quirked a brow at that if I wasn’t in my transformed state. “Is that not what they-“

Before I could finish, she disappeared. There was no warning, or sign she had teleported, but she had appeared directly above me. Stepping to the side as thin swords of ice appeared in her hands, she came down where I once stood. Slamming Defiance down on her, my eyes widened as I only connected with what appeared to be an ice form of her as it shattered and was taken away by the current.

Shadows danced in the light as something appeared over me again. Stepping back, a form of ice slammed down, piercing the temple stone below as it stayed there frozen. Jumping back again, another form of ice appeared where I was and repeated the same process, but in a different pose to the first one. Jumping, dodging, and twisting out of the way, the clones of ice eventually stopped appearing. Dozens of ice statues littered the temple grounds as I floated above studying the area.

The High Elf was hidden around here somewhere within this abyss. “I’d like to talk this out, but I’m quickly losing all interest in this. In Crawlana. Its people.” Removing all water surrounding the Temple, the High Elf/Aridian appeared to be standing where she was when I first arrived. “And you.” I said in a cold tone as I looked down at her.