To Disturb the Harmony~Chapter 22

“The Great Guardian?” I asked intrigued. The idea of some kind of all powerful force above even the elements seemed too unbelievable. “What is that?”

“It doesn’t matter right now,” Earth said as he handed me the glass sphere. I looked into it and it seemed to come alive as a whirlwind of sand appeared inside it. “Interesting...”

I watched the sphere for what seemed like forever, however my other hand seemed to move on its own, as if drawn to the sphere.

The tip of my sword began to glow with blue fire and as soon as the blade made contact with the sphere, there was a blinding flash of light. I squinted as I tried to see the source of the light and noticed that it came from both my sphere and my sword, as if they were reacting to each other. I watched through the light as the sphere seemed to melt into the blade and a moment later, it was gone.

“Now that is interesting,” Earth said as the light faded. I looked at him in confusion at what had happened, but he didn’t seem to be too interested in explaining. “Keep that sword safe young one, I feel it will be of great importance in the future.”

Just then the cave seemed to shake and I wondered if the ice element outside was trying to break in, but the air in the room didn’t seem to be getting colder. In fact, the room seemed to be heating up as the moments pasted. Just then, the rocks on the far side of the room split apart and formed a type of tunnel.

“It seems our time has been short. This tunnel will lead you to the surface, take it and be careful. Remember what I said, protect the sword,” he said before looking at Kimi and Aisling. “However, that isn’t the only thing you need to protect.”

Earth melted back into the ground without another word. His elite guards took form once again and began leading us toward the exit. We followed the path, which seemed to be an upward spiral leading to the top of the canyon. When we reached the top, it looked like Arizona had been turned into a winter wonderland, except replace wonderland with what I imagined a frozen Underworld would look like.

“Ash, look out!” Kimi cried as she pushed me over. I fell to the ground in the snow and turned around to see a beam of ice consume the spot I had been standing in. When the beam disappeared, Kimi was left frozen in place like an ice sculpture.

“That should take care of her,” came a familiar chilling voice that I heard over the snow. The snow began to twist and turn until it formed a singular body, much like how Earth had formed a body from the rocks around him. “Now you truly have no chance of stopping me.

“Ash,” Aisling called as she whipped out her ax and shield. “Now would be a good time to do that flaming sword thing again.”

I did as she asked. I held my sword out and blue flames covered it. I thought about my sword being on fire, like I had done the first time. However, this time nothing seemed to happen and my flames simply encased the sword with no reaction to it.

“It isn’t working,” I shouted back as I kept trying to get my sword to at least release a spark.

“Of course not. With fire captured your sword couldn’t even set a room full of gas on fire,” the large ice figure mocked. He raised his hand and I saw several sharp icicles form in his hand. They all launched at different time, like his hand was a gun that fired ice. As each icicle came at us, a new one would form in its place, making finding an opening almost impossible. Not to mention that even with an opening, we couldn’t hurt him anyway.

“Any ideas?!” I called to Aisling, who was currently forced behind her shield and pressed up against a rock. She was completely pinned down while I was currently dodging icicles and slashing at the ones I couldn’t dodge, but I couldn’t keep this up forever.

“You can’t hide behind your shield forever,” Ice said and his icicle shots stopped. Instead, another blast of ice flew from his hand and Aisling gripped her shield tighter, but she too was frozen solid in place. “And now all that is left is you.”

I looked at the frozen figures of my friends and something just seemed to snap inside of me. Like a man possessed, I lifted my sword ready to strike and I funneled all my power into it, not really sure what I was trying to do. However, I felt the power of my sword pushing me on to attack and I listened to it.

Ice simply laughed a sound which made the very air drop a few degrees. He lifted his hands and shot a beam of ice at me, like he had done to the others. I wasn’t ready to become an icicle, so I took a defensive stance as I raised my sword to block. Miraculously, the earth moved with my own movements and rose up from under the snow to block Ice’s attack.

“What magic is this,” Ice said confused, but I could also tell there was some fear in his voice. I moved forward and swung my sword at him. I was at least a good five feet away, but the earth moved with me and hit the ice monster in the chest. The injury healed slower than I had expected it to, but it was healing. I slashed again, but this time Ice began blocking my strikes with his ice abilities. I kept slashing at him, gaining ground as Ice was forced back by the power of the earth that my sword seemed to be generating. I knew the battle was almost over when I went in for a fake strike, causing Ice to lift his arms ready to block. I quickly changed positions and swept for his knees, causing earth to rumble under him and slash at his legs. The large ice monster fell to the ground and I moved in to land the finishing blow, thinking that defeating him would reverse everything he had done.

I stopped when the sound of a cannon echoed in the fills of the ground canyon. Then, a net made of Celestial Bronze covered the large ice giant. He thrashed in anger, but once a deity is trapped, their powers become useless. I turned around to see where the net had come from and saw some kind of huge air ship descend from the clouds.