But even at death's doors all she could think about was taking Lady Jiang with her. This completely unwarranted opinion of Lady Jiang that she had developed all by herself did not let her rest.

Instead of trying to control the artifact or perhaps cutting it off by force, Princess Inara bit down on her tongue to draw even more blood and spat it onto the blade.

This act provoked the artifact even more. The crown of red gems lining the top and bottom of the hilt started to hum with a dim light, releasing an otherworldly pressure that made one's blood boil. Whatever the origin of this artifact was it was surely sinister in nature.

And the majority of this pressure was focused on the person the blade was pointed at, Lady Jiang.

Her defensive magics could do little to stop the effects of the artifact awakening. The humming got louder and louder, building up to something. The air became heavy with killing intent all of which was aimed directly towards Lady Jiang.

But while all this was happening on the ground below, something much worse had been put into action in the sky above. The purple clouds had formed a whirlpool that was touching the tip of the pyramid while the rest of its body spun faster and faster.

It was obviously not a natural event because no one seemed to have even noticed it until it was far too late. Princess Inara was about to strike when a bright flash of light grabbed her attention from the rear.

She turned her head with some effort and finally noticed the strange phenomenon. There were pillars of purple light in the shape of lightning bolts coming down from the whirlpool and connecting with the ground below.

But that wasn't the strangest part. In every spot the light pillar was connected to the ground, a crack in the fabric of space was bulging outward. There were 17 in total, each one of a different size.

*Craaackle*

One of the light pillars destabilized and abruptly exploded.

*BOOOOM*

A circular shockwave discharged in every direction for half a mile, covering everything. And when it passed by Princess Inara's party they were all sent flying into the air. The blade dropped from her hand and landed down into the valley.

The guards were thrown towards the forest in the back while Inara was sent rolling into Lady Jiang and Uri, destroying her barrier spell. But strangely enough, only Princess Helena who was wide open was the only one left standing, and not even that but she had returned to her original self.

Whatever that light was, it had helped her breakaway. She looked around and the first thing she saw was the whirlpool. A stream of black liquid dripped out of her nostrils and down her face. It was hot enough to create vapors in the atmosphere.

"N-No no, a-am I too late?!" she stammeringly uttered to herself while holding her head. Steam was coming off of her body but she did not have the time or the luxury to worry about herself.

"INARA!" she suddenly remembered her twin sister and looked around to find her not too far in the distance, under a tree along with Lady Jiang and Uri.

"Hurry! We have to go!" she ran up to them and pulled Princess Inara ut to her feet but upon noticing her pale complexion and sunken cheeks her brow furrowed in confusion. "What happened to you?"

"The....blade..." Princess Inara weakly pointed towards the valley. Helena looked around Inara's waist for the sword but couldn't find it so it was pretty easy to connect the dots. Her frown turned into a scowl instantly when she realized what had happened.

"What did you do?! Did you lift the seal?!"

Princess Inara looked away indignantly, opting not to explain herself.

*Crack*

But before Princess Helena could scold her, another pillar of light cracked. It sounded identical to ice cracking but was loud enough that its sound echoed for miles and miles.

"Get up! We have to leave!" she pulled Princess Inara to her feet and looked towards the others.

"Ms. Jiang, get up right now! We have to get ou-" before she could even finish speaking the cracked pillar exploded as well.

*BOOM*

Purple shards of solidified light shot out in every direction. Princess Helena threw her wobbling twin sister behind her and pulled on her gold earrings. They burst apart, turning into specks of golden light.

Each speck expanded into a hexagon tile half a meter in diameter and connected with one another to make a wall around all four of them.

The purple shards that looked like icicles rained down. Upon coming into contact with the golden tiles they simply bounced off and fell to the side, evaporating a few seconds later.

The entire valley shook under their feet as the fifteen cracks that were still left at the edge of the light pillars suddenly expanded all at once. The insides of each crack swayed for just an instant before stabilizing, showing contrasting images. Each one held a distinct scenery from a strange unknown place.

Most of them were empty, showing barren uninhabited lands or deserts either all shrouded in darkness or reflecting various heavenly bodies in the crack's watery surface.

But three of them were different. One was underwater somewhere.. On the other side of this crack was something moving in the darkness.

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