Awakening Chronicles

Chapter 8

I shot forward as I watched Aphelia fall. My hand reached out, and I grabbed her waist and pulled her into me. Her body hung limply in my arms as I flapped my wings once and slowly floated to the ground. As soon as I felt my feet touch the ground, I set her down gently and called out for Helios. A moment later, he appeared before me and bowed his head. "Yes, my lord?"

"What's wrong with her?" I asked him as I wiped away the black tears rolling down her face.

He reached a tentative hand out and placed it to her forehead like you would a child and let out a long-drawn-out sigh. "Her core is fading. This planet is on the cusp of death, and it's not giving her the energy she needs to live." He stood up and brushed the sand from his tunic and let out a small tsk in turn.

"What can we do for her?" I asked as I felt a sense of despair start to mount in my chest. Even if she did spend the last few minutes trying to kill me, I couldn't fault her for that.

"We are going to have to move her core to another planet. However, it's going to take a vast portion of your creation mana to do so." I nodded my head and stood up. I took a few steps back and gazed at Aphelia's unconscious form with worry in my eyes.

"Okay, what do I need to do?" I asked him as I straightened up and began to prepare my self.

"Well, we need to crack the planet's crust and scoop out her core. But It's going to require a vast amount of mana to do this. Once we get her heart to a new planet, it shouldn't be too much of a problem." He told me as flapped his wings once more and started hovering a few feet off of the ground. "Time is of the essence because it appears that your small fight used up the last bit of her energy reserves."

I nodded my head and stood back, "So how am I going to do this?" I ask him as I took a deep breath in and pulled out that familiar force of light from deep within my chest.

"You remember how you connected to the planet? Well, you need to do that again and change your intent." I closed my eyes and sent a branch of energy out. I opened my eyes again and directed it into the crust and thought about crushing and cracking the planet apart. The earth around me started to shake and tremble as a vast chasm began to appear as the land split around my mana. I forced more energy into the river flowing from me, and the planet went from trembling into full tremors. I felt the planet cry out in pain through our link, but I forced the emotions back until I met the core. I shot tendrils of energy out and felt around until I came across an energy source that was completely different than that of the planet. I wrapped my mana around it like fingers and felt Aphelia's core start to resist. "Come here, damn you!" I yelled as I began to tug with all my strength. I felt her core fight back with all its strength before I yanked once more and felt it come loose. I started to pull it back and glanced to the side to see Aphelia's form dissipate quickly into the air. I turned my focus back to the task at hand and kept pulling.

The planet screamed and fought as I pulled out the object, and just as suddenly as the trembling started, it stopped, and I felt the flood of emotion die off. A feeling of shame coursed through me as I realized I just killed my first real living being. I didn't have time to ponder on the realization, so I quickly shoved it to the side and kept tugging at the object. After a few moments of pulling, I saw a glimmering light start to appear in the gorge that extended into the horizon. A brilliant gemstone came into the sunlight as my energy wrapped around it and pulled it higher. As the daylight started to pierce the gem, an unimaginable multitude of colors began to dance across the surface in a dazzling display. But the light and radiance of the core were starting to dissipate by the second once it left the gorge.

"Quickly infuse your creation mana into the core before she dies!" Helios hissed out to me, and I wrapped my mana tightly around the core and felt it start to fight against me.