My back smashed into the wall as the current dragged me and Guinevere down the underwater river. The foaming bubbles and murky water made it impossible to see. My head smacked about, and I curled around the unconscious Guinevere. We would need air soon, especially her, but I was trusting fate on where this river would lead me.

  I needed to get Guinevere air, or she’d drown before she even regained consciousness.

  I grabbed hold of a rock and held myself against the current struggling to do so one handed.

  “Hell Dragon’s Armory,” I mumbled out through the water expending my precious air. I shifted the rock above us creating a pocket of space. Pushing up, I dragged Guinevere inside and widened it out. Her skin was turning a deathly grey, the black lines still spreading from the wound in her chest.

  Her chest wasn’t moving so I began doing compressions. I’d briefly worked as a lifeguard during high school and had to perform CPR on several people. Pushing air into her lungs I moved back and began doing compressions on her chest again she coughed and spat out water beginning to breathe again, but her breathing was ragged, and the black veins continued to spread.

  I hadn’t yet removed the blade sticking there in her chest yet for fear of letting her bleed out. I began pulling out my jars of herbs, I had no healing abilities so this would all have to be my nonexistent understanding of alchemy.

  She was suffering from poison and the only thing I knew about that was that if you survived it long enough and enough deadly doses, she’d basically become immune to it. I pulled out my remaining Purity Lilies from the memory of acquiring them when I contracted Ghoul Rot surfacing. Hopefully it would save her life like it had mine. I began mixing herbs together in a base of a Red Yarrow healing potion.

  Plugging her nose, I yanked out the dagger and poured the mixture down her throat. I packed the wound on her chest with Cautr Fennel. She writhed on the floor in agony, but I held her down until her convulsions had expired. The black veins slowly began to recede as Guinevere’s Toughness fought against the poison now aided by my improvised antidote. Her armor was ruined now and hanging off her in tatters like my clothes had been.

  She shivered with cold and doing my best to preserve her modesty I removed her wet clothing and set it out to dry. Using Hell Dragon’s Armory, I created a raised section of ground and put down some furs and laid her out on it. Covering her with more pelts, I sat down into meditation looking at the swirling water in the hole beneath us.

  For several long minutes I collected myself. The past five minutes since ending my fight against Versu had been a state of panicked desperation and half cooked ideas. Decompressing I let the stress role off me as I sat down able to just think without worried about something ripping into my back.

  “Pull up my Status,” I said not sure if I was out of influence of the System again.

  It was irritating to have all those rank points I’d worked so hard to get just get taken away but at least I’d gotten an ability out of it. Although by the looks of it I would be able to use it for around ten seconds, I would have to find a way to increase this new resource or get a better regen rate for it if I wanted to use it more.

  Guinevere was still out so I pulled out the artifact shards I had acquired. They didn’t come to life and attack me anymore so at least that was out. I couldn’t make them into a weapon at least not one with an edge, so what could I do with them. I only had about three pounds worth of the stuff so it wasn’t enough to make any armor on their own but if I could combine them with something else….

  I pulled out my rarest crafting material I had. The stone hummed with power in my hand as I held it, the nine-inch-long crystal practically vibrated with barely contained power. Its golden light was the only source of illumination in the pitch-black cave. It was blinding after sitting in the darkness even if I’d been able to see perfectly thanks to my eye’s mutations.

  Don’t you remember what happened last time you messed with that? Karnen asked his voice filled with irritation and exasperation.

  “I’ve got more mana this time,” I said. “A lot more, plus you haven’t even heard the crazy part of my plan yet,” I said.

  And what’s that? Karnen asked defeated.

  Reaching into my storage pouch I pulled out an item I hadn’t touched since I’d looted it after slaying the Storm Pheonix. The blazing blue and white light made the glow of the Crystal of Heaven’s Wrath seem like nothing as I held the weightless ball of energy in my hand.

  I don’t think that counts as stone, metal or even organic material, Karnen pointed out. How do you even plan on working with that?

  “I’ve got a side ability with Storm Soul I’ve never used,” I said pulling up the ability.

  “See the third extra effect,” I pointed out to him. “If I convert the Heart of the Storm into a crystal I think I’ll be able to manipulate it with Hell Dragon’s Armory.”

  Think! Karnen practically shouted in my head. You’ve never even tested this before and now your going to wing it with a mythic rarity material that could probably level a small country!

  I think it’s a great plan, Voidra said deciding to join the contribution.

  You have no self-preservation instinct, Karnen said.

  “I’m doing this, whether you want me to or not,” I said. “We’re still trapped underground and I need to gain more titles and power creating something like this is sure to get a reward from the system.”

  We’re all going to die, Karnen sighed. Which one are you going to do first?

  “Not sure,” I admitted. “Do you have a preference on which one?”

  Do I have a preference for how we die? Karnen asked wryly. Do the Heart of the Storm first if you can’t convert it into a crystal we won’t have to worry about trying to add it to the Crystal of Heaven’s Wrath.

  I shrugged. “Makes as much sense as anything.”

  Setting the Crystal of Heaven’s Wrath back in storage I held the ball of tingling energy in both hands. I focused in on it closing my eyes as I tried to reach out and effect it.

  “Hell Dragon’s Armory,” I said just to see if it would work. It did not.

  Letting out a disappointed sigh I continued. Storm Soul was a passive ability so I wasn’t sure how to consciously use it. I felt Voidra digging around in my soul and felt a switch go off as she messed with my abilities inner workings. I began to feel hot all over my eyes opened and I could see all my scars glowing as mana began leaking off of me. Closing them again I focused on the Heart of the Storm, I began squeezing it feeling it shock me as it fought back against my will. More and more lighting struck into me but my resistance to that damage type let me push past it without being distracted. It took about ten minutes but eventually the Heart gave way and imploded in a second. My hands clapped together as the pressure I’d been putting on the Heart was suddenly uncontested.

  Opening my eyes I held up a perfectly round blue marble. It shone blue and a raging storm could be seen inside it. It was surprisingly heavy for its size, not supper heavy but maybe half a pound in weight.

  Its description hadn’t changed but I felt more confident about using it now.

  “Ok, do we use this on the Shards of Assurin or the Crystal of Heaven’s Wrath first?” I asked.

  Using it on the Shards of Assurin seems like the best choice, Voidra said. If they become hostile again you don’t want them to have the power of that stone so test it on the Heart first.

  Nodding I brought the sword fragments out of my storage pouch.

  Each of their edges were razor sharp but I gathered them all in my cupped hands levitating the Heart of the storm on top of them like an egg in a nest of razors. Closing my eyes, I focused on all the shards and the Heart with my senses I’d first gained from Compress Earth.

  “Hell Dragon’s Armory,” I said.

  The shards fought against me. Each one had their own will; they were weak individually but together it was like trying to hold a dozen struggling cats at once. My Spirit lashed out at them, and it was not alone, Voidra and Karnen were with me adding their own will to mine. The shards resisted but the Heart seemed eager; one by one I fed it the shards of the sword. The Heart eagerly consumed them drawing them into its shape. It took over an hour and my mana was empty by the time I was done but when I opened my eyes I beheld something completely different.

  The crystal was no longer a perfectly smooth orb but an angry mess of jagged points. Its electric blue coloring had been replaced by a luminescent crimson that pulsed, growing brighter than darker. It was much larger but didn’t seem any heavier than the total mass that had gone into it and was around the size of a baseball.

  That’s quite something, Karnen admitted. Are you sure you don’t just want to use it as is in some weapon?

  “If I’m going to use this to make a weapon, I want it to be as powerful at it can be,” I said picking up the crystal of heaven’s wrath. It was much smaller than the Heart of Malice, but I honestly wasn’t sure which one was more powerful.

  Settling down I place my hands in my lap as I settled into meditation to boost my focus. I waited until my mana pool was full again before I started.

  “Hell Dragon’s Armory,” I whispered.

  If the shards had resisted me before it was nothing compared to how both crystal reacted to eachother. It was like trying to bring the opposing poles of the worlds most powerful magnets next to eachother. They strained against me as I poured my mana into the skill. My will clashed against the crystals but they were not so easily cowed their pseudo sentience struggling against my demands.

  “Dominion!” I snarled and brought to bear another of my abilities against them. While not living creatures and thus unable to become vassals the skill did seem to lessen how effective they could struggle against me but even this wasn’t enough. My mana was bottoming out and my regen rate despite how impressive it was for my rank wasn’t able to keep up.

  Karnen and Voidra reached out with their energies and began to assist me wearing down the resistances of the crystals. I felt a power I’d only felt briefly when fighting against Versu. Mentally checking my status, I saw my limited Ethereal energy being drained and poured into the crystals. The use of a second energy seemed to alter how my ability worked and my stamina began to rapidly drain as well.

  I was too deep into the forging of this stone now, I would either succeed or die in creating it. The stones were beginning to merge even as they still struggled but the amount of mana it was taking was absurd. My mind was dragged into the darkness as my mana, stamina and Ethereal all hit zero.

  --

  I stood on the edge of the cliff in the void. I was not hanging off it this time but a single move would send me over. There was light this time and I looked down at my hand where a crystal glowed crimson like a dying sun. Two sets of arms emerged from my torso and together we held the crystal aloft. All around me I felt the void recoil than attack as its darkness was encroached upon. The hunger of the void crashed down upon me but I did not quiver under its onslaught.

  Drawing on my link with Voidra I reached out to the void and struck out grabbing at it. I drew upon the struggle might of the void to me. A feeling of hunger rose in me, but it encountered a more powerful emotion, rage. My hatred and anger clamped down on the void, there was no strength of body in this place only emotion. The void had no true concept of emotion, but I did, and this made me stronger than it in this moment.

  I poured the energy of the void into the crystal guided by my anger, hatred. The void begged for release, but I felt no pity for it and continued to siphon its power my cruelty and malice pinning it down. There was a brilliant flash and the crystal solidified in my hands.

  --

  My eyes snapped open, and I sucked in a breath. My lungs heaved and I pushed myself up from the ground where I had fallen. I looked down to my right hand where a long blood red crystal was gripped between my fingers. It was around fourteen inches long from tip to tip but no thicker than my thumb.

  This Sabre God is really getting on my nerves, Voidra growled. You can only make a staff or club with this because of him.

  “I have a different plan for it,” I said dismissing the item description as I saw several prompts awaiting me in the corner of my vision.

  Looking at my status I saw that my Ethereal regen rate and max pool had doubled in size. So I would have to interact with the Void if I wanted to increase that resource. It would be risky but could prove worth it in the end. The only problem would be accessing the Void since the only way I’d found to do so was by being at death’s door.

  So you said you had plans for it, Karnen said mentally eyeing the crystal star warily. What are they?

  “Have you ever heard of a lightsaber?” I asked.