To Disturb the Harmony~Chapter 21

The voice in the back of my mind grew louder as I went deeper into the cave. While the voice was calm and soothing, I could feel the power behind every word. Maybe Kimi could hear it to, which was what scared her, or possibly she could just feel the power emanating around us, I didn’t know. Eventually, the cave lead us to a large room filled with crystals, diamonds, rubies, almost any kind of precious rock you could think of.

“By the gods,” Aisling said as she looked around the room. The light from my sword seemed to bounce off the gems in the room and it reflected in her eyes, making them appear to be glowing as well. She walked over to one of the large crystal formations and placed her hand on it. “The rocks in this room could make us rich for the rest of our lives, and maybe even in the afterlife.”

Just then the room began to shake and the precious stones began to mold into more Earthborn. However, unlike the rock monsters that lead us here, these ones were bigger, stronger, and tougher in every way, as their bodies were made of the strongest materials under the earth. I raised my sword to try and defend myself, but the room began to shake violently. I wondered if the rock monsters had done it, but they look just as scared as I currently felt.

“Let them pass,” came a voice that echoed around the entire room. It was loud and powerful, causing the rock monsters to melt into the floors and walls and returning to their original rock forms. In the center of the room, a figure rose from the floor. He was about ten feet tall and was made from a variety of different rocks. He let out a few coughs, causing what looked like sand to come out of his mouth. His green ruby eyes gave him a calming feel as I looked at him. He then looked directly at me and he smiled, causing the rocks that made up his lips and cheeks to crack. “You’ll have to excuse my elite guard, they are very protective of me, not that I need protecting from you, do I?”

“No sir,” I told him, not really sure what else to say. Just from being in the same room as him, I could feel his immense power. I mean just a few days ago I was at Olympus, surrounded by the Olympians, but none of them had radiated power like the stone figure before me. It was a feeling of primitive power, like a force of nature. “May I ask why you called us here?”

“Down to business I see,” he said as his smile faded a bit. “Well, as you can tell the elements are at war with each other. Fire was captured and now the other elements are fighting to take over her territory. We elements are primitive beings with chaotic natures. We act on instinct and we are constantly at war with each other, but we always stay in balance…until now that is.”

“What about you? Don’t you want to spread your own territory?” Aisling asked him and he looked at her, but nodded his head no as if she had misheard him.

“I am a nonviolent being by nature. The ultimate defensive being as I cannot afford to try and attack the others. Imagine that air or water took control of even a small portion of my realm, the ground below your feet turning to water. Whole cities would simply sink below the waves. It happened to Atlantis, Water took control of my territory during one of our little spats and it sunk beneath the waves,” he explained with a sigh, as if the memory greatly upset him. “Everything is so unbalanced.”

“And you think we can help?” I asked him. “What can we do?”

“I’m glad you asked,” he said and he brought his hand forward. A long cane rose from the ground and met his hand. At the top of the spear was a small green orb that glowed with a faint light. He removed it from the spear and walked up to me. He opened his palm to me and showed me the sphere. “This is a symbol of my power, the Sphere of the Earth. Each of the four Elementals has one like the one I have before you know. While they may not look like much, if another Elemental where to get their hands on another’s, they could control the others element.”

“So if Air or Water took that sphere, they could control the Earth?” I asked. “That is the power of the sphere?”

“Yes, but not just the other elements. You could steal my power as well, use it against me if you wished, but I don’t think you will. You wouldn’t risk destroying the world in that fashion,” He explained as his emerald eyes seemed to look into me.

“Aren’t you worried that the other Elementals will over power you if we take that?” Aisling asked as she looked at the sphere.

“No, even asleep Gaea feeds my power. She is the earth mother after all and has let me use her warriors for my own goals. They have been used by evil in the past, mostly by…” Earth began to say, but stopped as he looked at me before continuing. “…Other gods, but they are valued warriors.”

“So what can we do with this? Why is it so important?” I asked him, not fully understanding why he wanted us to take his sphere of power.

“The spheres contain another, greater power than what I have told you,” Earth said in his slow rocky voice. “While alone they do contain great power, together they unleash an even greater power. They act as the key to unlocking a force of nature even stronger than the elements or even the gods.”

“What could be that powerful?” I asked in surprise as the idea of something even stronger than the gods amazed me.

“Our treasures combined summon the Great Guardian,” he responded and for some reason, everything seemed to take on a greater weight to it.