Ty slowly regained consciousness, the chill of the mountain snow against his skin pulling him back to reality. He blinked against the harsh winds as the last sunlight dipped below the horizon and stars began to fill the night sky.
Near midnight, a massive pale glow rose from a distant point and swallowed his attention.
Groaning, Ty brushed a thick layer of snow off his battered frame. His bones ached with the cold, but the sight of the unusual light reignited his curiosity.
With grim determination, he summoned the black flames under his feet, the heat melting snow in his wake as he propelled himself toward the mysterious radiance.
As he approached, the source of the glow became clearer--a structure hidden away in the sky, resembling a black rectangular box.
Despite its size, it bore the markings of age, with weathered surfaces from centuries passed. The artifact floated silently, suspended in the heavens, its doors sealed tight.
Ty reached out, his fingers tracing the ancient runes that guarded the entrance. The characters were etched deeply into the material, each one pulsing with an old power that seemed as if it were drawing breath from the very stars.
Whispering the word "Reiesencia," he felt energy course through the door, the barrier giving way with a low hum.
Stepping inside, Ty’s eyes quickly adjusted to the dim interior, only to find himself face to face with a woman holding a crystal. Her expression shifted rapidly from concentration to surprise as she turned to face the intruder in her secluded sanctuary.
Ty noticed the crystal’s glow intensifying upon him and responded, "Sorry, I thought this place was empty. What are you doing here anyways... Ms?"
"I should be asking you what you’re doing here in my space," the woman retorted, her tone a blend of curiosity and assertiveness.
"This place is locked off from the humans down below, so just how did --" Her words trailed off as her expression shifted from inquiry to shock.
A strand of her bright blue hair slipped between her eyes, and her marble-blue gaze widened. She let out a loud scream. "You’re a skeleton monster!!"
As fear flickered across the woman’s face, she extended her right arm, bracelets made of crystals chiming softly around her wrist.
Within moments, a small blue portal swirled into existence, and from it emerged a large staff.
The staff was intricately crafted, its shaft adorned with patterns that ebbed and flowed like water.
At the top, a large crystal, matching the hue of her eyes, pulsated with an inner light, radiating an aura of powerful magic.
She gripped the staff with a firm resolve, her stance poised and ready for conflict. Closing her eyes in concentration, she pointed the staff toward Ty and shouted with determination, "Almighty blast!"
A barrage of blue energy blasts erupted from the crystal atop the staff, casting flickering light throughout the room.
The energy crackled with raw power. Ty, caught off guard by the sudden attack, swiftly encased himself in Reiesencia as the first blast hit.
The force of the blast shattered his energy barrier and hurled him across the room. His bones scattered and splintered across the floor.
The woman, firmly aware of her staff’s immense power, tightened her grip on the ornate weapon.
The staff’s length was adorned with etchings that pulsed with the same energy as the crystal embedded at its top.
The crystal, a deep shade of blue that mirrored her eyes, shimmered with power and cast blue light across the chamber.
She stood poised, her eyes intently focused on the remnants of Ty’s scattered form.
A bright golden orb floated above Ty’s scattered skeleton, the bones beginning to shake as he formulated a plan. ’Okay, this woman is dangerous; I’ll need to do something to slow her down,’ he thought to himself, assessing the situation with a strategic mind.
"Hey, you know it’s rude to attack people if they haven’t attacked you, right?!" Ty’s soul shouted out, his voice echoing in the chamber.
In response to his command, all his bones flew around her in a flurry, creating a whirlwind of skeletal fragments.
Caught off guard, the woman exclaimed, "How are you still alive?!" Her eyes widened as she watched Ty’s bones reassemble themselves.
In a frightened panic, the woman continued to unleash more energy blasts from her staff. Each burst of energy either shattered large chunks of Ty’s bone flurry or missed entirely, crashing into the endless hall and wreaking havoc among the weapons.
Amidst this chaos, she fired another blast with her eyes closed. At that moment, Ty, having reformed his chest, arms, and skull, appeared above her.
He swiftly slapped the top of her head with a leg bone, uttering a single word, "Slow."
Ty’s attempt to slow her down had no effect. In a desperate move, she swung her staff around, trying to hit Ty again.
This time, a chunk of his skull was blasted off, flying across the room to strike the central crystal, grazing it and taking a quarter inch off the top.
Realizing the unintended damage to the crystal, the woman dropped her staff in horror, her earlier aggression forgotten.
"Oh no, no, no," she exclaimed, her voice filled with alarm and regret as she stared at the damaged crystal, the consequences of her actions becoming all too clear.
Ty, still in a defensive stance, was slightly confused by the woman’s sudden shift in attention. "Are, you, uh, okay?" he cautiously asked, noticing her distraught demeanor.
The woman, looking back at Ty with tears in her eyes, lamented, "No, I just cracked my crystal. It’s going to take so much time to fix! I just wanted to sleep all night until the ceremony started, and now I have to figure out how to get rid of you!"
Her outburst showed more concern for the crystal than the fight, along with real annoyance over her disrupted plans.
Ty, with a puzzled expression on his reassembling skull, took in her words.
He also realized that his ’Slow’ ability had no effect on her, adding another layer of complexity to the situation.
Her erratic behavior and focus on the crystal in the middle of their confrontation left him confused.
"Well, first off, you could have just asked me to leave. Also, why did the ability fail on you? And who are you?"
Her tears vanished as quickly as they had come, replaced by a blank expression. "Really? You aren’t here to steal all of my stuff?" she asked, her tone shifting to one of mild curiosity.
"And I’m immune to all abilities. I can only be hurt by someone stronger than me," she added, wiping at her eyes enough for Ty to assume tears were there.
Ty responded, "No-no, I just saw this place lit up while sitting atop a mountain and decided to come see what it was.
The door was hard to open at first, but it opened very easily once I applied some pure Reiesencia to it."
He paused, then added, "I sometimes forget even to use it to enhance my fighting, though. I haven’t been a skeleton for too long."
The woman appeared genuinely shocked at the mention of Reiesencia. "Where did you hear that word from?!" she exclaimed, her voice laced with disbelief.
"No one on this planet should know about that; this planet is locked out of using pure Reiesencia anyway."
Ty, placing a bony finger over his sharply defined chin, thoughtfully replied, "That’s right, I learned it from a woman named Elithira, but -- wait, how do you know what Reiesencia is?!"
Her shock escalating even further, the woman blurted out in a mixture of surprise and curiosity, "You know my sister?!"