Liam was led back to the hall he had met his first Elemental in and was greeted by it and two more. They were both smaller than the first but maintained a similar shape and make up to it, only one was made of fire and the other blood. If it wasn't for his recent experiences with his own bodily harm he might've been disturbed by the sight in front of him and he noticed that Hal looked a bit queasy off to the side but he didn't let any of that distract from his purpose. He even put aside his guess that these two were at least partially responsible for the messages that had been left for him on his way here in favour of getting right to the part where his axe got another Title.

  "Are you ready?"

  He asked.

  "We are."

  The Greater Sound Elemental boomed.

  "If you'll follow us."

  Liam nodded and followed along, trailing behind a little to respect the elementals' wishes to not be too close to Pyrae Mortalis. They led him down a couple of corridors and into a more heavily fortified room with thicker walls and a large archway as the entrance. In the centre of the room, there was a rear in the space that pulsed different colours and hung suspended above an intricately carved ritual. Through the Rift he could see a dead world of barren rock. What was once plains stretched out as far as he could see. Nothing grew and nothing lived. The only movement he saw was a humanoid collection of lightning sprinting rapidly towards the portal. It seemed to dim and shrink in from the expenditure of energy. It crossed the empty landscape with bounding strides until it reached the Rift and lay its hand upon it.

  The ritual flashed and the portal changed to a golden hue as the Elemental turned into a stream of lightning that flowed through the tear in space and reformed next to them. A few moments later and it had returned to its humanoid form, glowing brighter and larger each second until it regained its former size and luminosity. The portal went back to changing between different colours and the ritual went back to being inert but Liam noticed that the Rift's light was ever so slightly less than it had been before.

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  The Lightning Elemental crackled its thanks to its brethren and Noisy formed a series of booming thunderclaps in return. Nodding, the now rescued refugee strode out of the room and into the wider castle.

  "That is what we're trying to do here."

  The Greater Sound Elemental 'spoke'.

  "We are fighting to save as many of our kind as possible with the Rift. It acts like a beacon to us, drawing them in and we use the energy of those who would donate it to our cause to bring them through."

  As if to prove his point, Hal stepped forward and lay his own hand on the Rift, channeling a silvery grey energy into it which it temporarily took the colour of and grew back to the same brightness it had before. Liam watched in fascination as it unfolded, right up until Hal stepped away from it looking tired. He returned back to them and Noisy turned to Liam.

  "If we give this blessing to your axe, will you help us?"

  "I will."

  "Then let us begin. Step forward and present your axe to the Rift, but keep a hold of its absorption power and don't let it get too close."

  He did as instructed and was flanked either side by the Blood and Sound Elementals. Wisps of energy flowed off them and towards his weapon, gathering around it like glimmering stars orbiting a black hole. Then the Fire Elemental went in front of him and placed its hands on either side of the relic, pressing against the Spirit keeping it isolated from the outside world.

  "When I say, lower that barrier for a second and only a second so that we can bless it."

  Came the booming voice from his side. He nodded and the command came.

  "Now!"

  He flickered his shield on and off with a delay in it recovering the weapon, and watch as a tide of firey sparks erupted from the Elemental in front of him and washed over the armament, covering it in a red glow. This glow then attracted the orbiting motes which were then drawn in and integrated. The barrier went back up but the transformation continued and he felt a tingling in the back of his mind that he could affect it somehow. Leaning on this instinct, he gave the blessing a nudge, gently suggesting that the axe accommodate the increased capacity with an increase in generation. Having done his part, he let the process do the rest.

  Its shape or size didn't change, but at the same time he could sense something inside of it changing through his link. A new type of energy was introduced through the glow and he felt a faint control over it, even looser than what he had over the Fire Mana. Then, the glow faded, absorbed into the bone and spread throughout the weapon. Not much had changed about it, just a few minor shifts in the runes carved into it, but it felt like more. A small trickle of what he knew from context to be Fire Elemental Energy was being produced by the weapon at about one hundredth the rate at which it generated Fire Mana. It filtered into a new, separate energy storage created by the blessing. He smiled.

  "It worked. I can help power this Rift of yours but anything you can teach me about controlling Elemental Energy will improve what I can do."