Empyrean 44: Saving a Celestial (Patreon)

Amelia, here :)
This is the final chapter of Empyrean's Flight! Thanks so much to everyone who read with me and gave feedback. The final book will be out on 31 December, don't forget to place your preorder here. 

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You have killed a level 59 psionic rogue!

You and Adalinda have gained 2 levels and 2 attribute points.

Your summoning skill has increased to level 50, reaching rank 5.

Your light magic skill has increased to level 52.

Your air magic skill has increased to level 22, reaching rank 2.

Adalinda’s natural armor has increased to level 51, reaching rank 5.

Adalinda’s tooth and claw skill has increased to level 54, reaching rank 5.

Warning: Celestial trait triggered! You have lost a life.

I rushed to Adalinda’s side and put my hands underneath her limp body. Tears streaming down my face, the only comfort I found was that I knew she would come back.

She had to come back.

But I was not sure how quickly that would come true. Neither of us had experienced a death yet, and the only thing I knew about it was that it could be painful. Even so, my chest tightened knowing that the celestial was dead.

I felt a soft hand on my shoulder and turned my head to see Soren holding out his resurrection stone.

“Use this,” he said.

I shook my head. “No,” I said, sniffing a little. “She will come back. We need to keep that for you.”

“When will that be?”

“I don’t know.”

My brother sat down next to me and gave me a soft smile. “Then we will wait. However long it takes.”

Tasting the salt of tears on my lips, I gently put Adalinda’s body back on the ground and moved to sit against the wall. I put my hand on my head and let out a heavy breath.

“What’s on your mind?” Soren asked.

“I am just so exhausted,” I said. “This dungeon has sapped the last of my motivation. I don’t even know how to get out of here.”

“We will find a way,” my brother tried to reassure me.

“And then what?” I said, limply hanging my arms over my knees. “Where do we go? We can’t go home.”

“Well,” he said, impressively keeping up his positive tone. “We have a whole world to discover. If anything, we have a whole history to discover—just about ourselves. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this entire dungeon has been riddled with clues about where we come from.”

“What do you mean?”

Soren chuckled slightly and moved to sit cross-legged in front of me. “I know I haven’t been of much use in fights, but I have been paying attention. Your Class has been mentioned as something impressive a few times, and we have been noticed as hatchlings. Don’t you want to know what it all means? And who set up this entire place at all?”

“I do,” I said. “I suppose I haven’t been able to pay much attention. Everything has been moving at breakneck speed.”

“I get that,” he agreed. “But we don’t have to. We can leave this place and find all the answers. They must be out there somewhere.”

I looked at Soren, grateful for his ability to see anything as an adventure. And, thinking back to our experience, he was right. The entire time we went through the Trials, even through our fight with the dungeon boss, I felt that I had found something special in being an Empyrean player.

But I didn’t really know what that meant yet.

This power I had, especially in what light magic gave me, was proving to be formidable. I faced most enemies with relative ease, and I didn’t find myself worrying much about my own presence in a fight anymore. Through all the things that had happened, I felt I had grown as a player—even as a person—and I was happy to hold onto that.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Of course,” Soren responded. “Do you want to look at the books I picked up?”

I smiled at my brother. “Yes.”

✵ ✵ ✵

It took eight hours for Adalinda to wake up.

After Soren and I looked through the tomes he had picked out in each chamber—which I hadn’t even noticed—I had almost fallen asleep by the time a familiar voice entered my mind.

“Elana?”

My eyes, which had been drooping closed, shot open immediately. I looked over to where the celestial had been lying and saw her move slowly. Ecstatic at the sight, I quickly crawled toward her.

“Ada! Are you okay?”

“Everything hurts,” she said. “What happened?”

“You died,” I said solemnly. “We have been waiting for you to wake up.”

“I… died? That makes sense now.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Everything was just dark for a while. One minute we were fighting Alastair, and the next I found myself unable to move. I couldn’t hear anything either. All I knew was darkness, and now I’m here, and my body is extremely sore.”

“Here,” I said, giving her a healing potion I had been holding in anticipation of her waking up. “Maybe this will help.”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “My health should be full. But I will feel the pain from dying.”

I slowly pulled the vial away from her, my face falling into disappointment.

“Don’t worry, I will be fine,” she assured me “I just need some distraction.”

“Well, we have about one hundred attribute points to spend,” I said. “Do you want to do some levelling?”

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” the celestial said, sitting up a little more confidently. “Tell me what we have.”

Adalinda and I discussed our points in detail, figuring out what we should invest in to make the most sense of our synergy and as individuals. With my new traits, I found it a little more challenging to decide where my points should go. After about thirty minutes of discussion, we finally decided on how to spend them that made us both happy.

Your Dexterity has increased to rank 10.

Your Faith has increased to rank 21.

Adalinda’s Strength has increased to rank 20.

Adalinda’s Dexterity has increased to rank 11.

As we finished levelling, I heard a slight shuffle behind us. I looked back to see Soren had woken from his sleep.

“Ada, it’s good to see you,” he said, his voice a little rough from sleep. “What did I miss?”

“Not much,” I said. “We were just doing some levelling.”

“Alright then,” he said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. “Should we get out of here?”

“In a moment,” I said. “There is one last thing we need to check.”

I stood up and walked toward the spot where we found Alastair sitting. A small and unassuming box was in this place, and it was where I assumed the artifact he was looking for could be found.

Sitting down in front of it, I took a deep breath. I wasn’t sure what to expect, or if it would even be something I could use, but for some reason I felt nervous.

I lifted the lid of the box and peered inside. A simple silver circlet lay there, adorned with small amethyst crystals.

The target is a soulbound artifact: Circlet of Metamorphosis. This artifact allows the users of manifesting abilities to do so at half the time and cost it would usually take. Additionally, the artifact allows the wearer to choose between any iterations of manifestations that have been available throughout their upgrades.

This is a soulbound artifact and cannot be lost or stolen.

My eyes widened as I read the description of the circlet. “Ada, you won’t believe what this is,” I said excitedly. Not being able to wait for her response, I told her about the item

“Wow,” she said. “So I can manifest at half the cost, quicker, and I can choose what form to use?”

“That’s what I understood,” I said. “Want to try it on?”

The celestial hurriedly moved toward me and held her head slightly down. I took  the circlet out of the box and gently placed it on her. As it touched her skin, it released a small burst of light.

Adalinda has soulbound the Circlet of Metamorphosis. From this point onward, the cost and time for her to manifest will be halved. She can also choose to manifest in any form she currently or has previously known.

“How does it feel?”

“I feel regal,” the celestial said with a hint of excitement. “I can’t wait to test it out.”

“What’s happening here?” Soren asked, interrupting the conversation.

“The artifact could be used by Adalinda,” I explained. “We were just trying it on.”

My brother looked at the celestial and nodded slowly. “Very impressive. Did it have any directions on how to get out of here?”

I stood up, scoffing a bit and smacking him on the shoulder. “Obviously not,” I said. “We have to find our own way.”

Looking around the chamber, I could not immediately see any exit. It seemed that the portal we came through had to be a doorway back and forth, because there was nothing here.

Inspecting the walls, a little closer for anything out of the ordinary, I concluded that we had to go back through the portal. Sighing, I wasn’t sure exactly how far back into the dungeon we would have to travel.

But we would have to try.

✵ ✵ ✵

My companions and I walked back through the portal without any issues, but when we did, we found ourselves in an entirely new chamber.

The red-laden walls of the room where we fought the elemental had disappeared, and in its stead, we found ourselves in a room covered in mushrooms. Some blue gems were sticking out of the walls, but we walked on fungus, and they were growing between the crystals as if it were their natural habitat.

Treading carefully over the plants, I scanned the room for any doorways that could lead out of the dungeon. In total, there were three, and I couldn’t help but sigh at the thought that we would have to trek even further through this place to get out.

It did not take us long to reach the doors, as thankfully, this room was smaller than most. When we did, I looked back at Soren and Adalinda.

“Which one?” I asked.

“The left,” Soren said.

I lifted an eyebrow at him. “Why?”

All I got was a shrug. “Left to right, it makes sense.”

Pursing my lips, mostly because his reasoning was silly, I walked toward the left door and touched the handle. As I did, a Game alert came through my mind.

Congratulations, Elana. You have found the secret doorway in this dungeon, only accessible to players who possess the Hatchling’s Claw.

A half-smile creeped across my face, knowing now that the end was near. At least, here it was. Behind this door were the answers I needed to—well, everything Soren and I were questioning about our family, our lineage.

Behind this door was the greatest adventure I would ever face.

I looked back to my brother and Adalinda. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

✵ ✵ ✵

The End.