The cavern shimmered in an eternal twilight with mushrooms glowing across the place. Verdamona sat cross-legged on a boulder, her chin resting on her palm, watching Thales sit perfectly still in the middle of the pond. The man hadn't moved for days. He could have been a statue if it weren't for the subtle distortion around him.
"You know, normal people meditate for, what, an hour? Two if they're dramatic. But days? I'm starting to think you're exaggerating."
The pebble she threw on the pool made a satisfying plop. Thales didn't react. Verdamona groaned and leaned back, staring at the glowing ceiling.
"If you die in there, I'm not fishing you out."
A faint rumble answered her. The pond's surface trembled before suddenly, Thales's eyes shot open. They burned with a cool azure glow, brighter than the mushrooms themselves. Verdamona sighed in relief, standing up.
"Finally. Welcome back, mister transcendence. Did you discover inner peace or just a new way to ignore me?"
"Both."
"You've been in there for days, Thales. Days. Don't tell me you're not hungry."
He stood up in the shallow water. The ripples spread, glowing faintly around his ankles.
"I am. But we don't have time for that."
"Of course not."
Thales ignored her. He looked at the center of the pond, where The Azure Sword floated just above the surface, humming softly. Verdamona took a cautious step back.
"You're not actually—"
Thales leapt. The pond exploded in a burst of light as his hand closed around the hilt. The moment he did, the air literally screamed as the cavern began to rumble. Cracks emerged across the glowing walls. Verdamona groaned, grabbing their backpacks.
"Oh, perfect. You couldn't just walk out of here like a normal lunatic, could you?"
"Normal is boring."
Chunks of stone started falling like meteorites.
"Thales—"
"Hold tight."
Before she could argue, his arm moved around her waist, pulling her close. Her breath hitched, half because of the sudden proximity, half because the entire ceiling was now collapsing on them.
He raised the Azure Sword upwards. The sword released a blinding beam of pure blue Xana that tore through the entire cavern roof. The explosion of light punched a tunnel straight upward, hundreds of meters through stone and sand, until daylight burst through. Verdamona blinked spots from her vision.
"Did you just make a hole?"
"Efficient exit strategy," Thales said, already leaping.
They shot upward through the hole, the wind howling past them. Verdamona barely had time to breathe before he began summoning dozens of swords, embedding themselves into the rocky walls of the shaft.
"What are you doing?!"
"Running on logic!"
"That's not what logic looks like!"
Each sword served as a foothold. He vaulted from one to another, pulling Verdamona along, the air whipping her hair wildly. Every time he kicked off, the shockwave cracked the stone further, echoing down the endless pit.
"Thales, the hole's collapsing!"
"Then we climb faster!"
"You're insane!"
"It is the only way!"
A rock grazed her shoulder. She swore, clutching him tighter.
"If we die, I'm haunting you!"
"Noted!"
A surge of Xana rippled from his boots as he kicked off the last blade. They burst from the collapsing tunnel in a geyser of blue light, landing hard in the middle of a windswept desert. The ground trembled once more, then the hole behind them sealed itself, leaving no trace of the underground world they'd just obliterated.
Verdamona lay on her back in the sand, panting, her eyes squinting against the harsh sun. Thales wiped dust from his hair, the Azure Sword gleaming on his shoulder. He looked down at her, his lips twitching to a grin.
"You're welcome, by the way."
"Oh, sure. Thanks for the free heart attack."
He offered her a hand. She took it reluctantly, brushing herself off as he looked out toward the horizon. But above them…
Verdamona's breath hitched. Thousands of pale, four-meter-tall figures moved in perfect synchronization across the dunes. The Faceless were waiting. Thales rolled his shoulders and exhaled slowly.
"Well, guess nap time's over for them."
Verdamona groaned. "Please Goddess of Combat, help me..."
He smiled, his eyes glowing with that same deep azure as the sword in his hand.
"Verdamona. You ready to finish your Trial?"
She cracked her neck, a dangerous grin spreading across her lips. "Born ready. But if one of those things pounces on me, I'm going to die from panic."
"Noted. Try not to blink."
"Why—"
A pulse of blue light erupted from the Azure Sword before she could finish. The dunes quaked. The Faceless shrieked as their ranks began to move. His hands were raised above his head, tracing a circle in the air.
Verdamona's instincts screamed that what Thales was doing should not be possible for any mortal. The dunes beneath her boots vibrated. The Faceless had stopped moving. For the first time, they began to step back.
Then Thales's voice broke through the storm.
"Azure Dominion, Cataclysm."
A beam of pure Xana erupted from above his head. It soared upward for a fraction of a second before imploding back down upon him, expanding outward in an immense, blinding dome of annihilation.
The sand melted. The horizon bent. The Faceless were turned into black ash before they ran away.
The dome expanded faster than sound, vaporizing everything it touched. Dunes were erased. The bones of long-dead giants beneath the desert cracked open and vanished. The heat was so intense it painted the clouds crimson, forming a second sun over the wasteland. Verdamona threw her arm over her face, but the force still tore through her clothes. The light burned through her eyelids. She heard nothing but a roar.
When the world came back, the desert was gone. In its place was a vast crater, glowing red at the edges. Above it all, Thales knelt in the center of the devastation, his hand buried in the still-smoking ground. His breath rattled, his body shaking violently. The glow of Xana still pulsed weakly in his veins.
"Thales! Hey, are you okay?!"
"I'm fine. Just… exhausted. I might have overdone it a little."
"A little? You wiped out an entire desert. You burned half the Faceless from existence!"
Thales laughed that quickly dissolved into a cough.
"Yeah, but they won't be bothering anyone else."
He slumped forward, his hand pressing into the sand that was no longer sand.
"Verdamona… look."
Day turned to night in an instant, as though the sky had blinked. Above them, the stars burst into being. They began to move, reforming in words. Verdamona stood frozen, her hair still smoking from the heat. Her lips parted as the stars aligned, one after another, until they formed glowing words across the heavens.
YOU HAVE PASSED THE TRIALS.
The ground beneath them trembled again as the sentence faded and new words formed, written across the night sky.
COLLECT YOUR PRIZE.
Verdamona turned to Thales, her eyes wide with disbelief and adrenaline. "Did you see that?"
Thales chuckled faintly, his body shaking as he tried to stand.
"Hard to miss."
Light appeared under their feet, spiraling outward in luminous gold and silver. Verdamona reached for Thales just as his strength gave out, catching him under the arms.
"Don't pass out now."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
The light enveloped them. The desert dissolved in that brilliance. They felt themselves lifted, as though the world itself was turning inside out. The sound of the wind was replaced by a deep shimmer of sound.
The next time Thales opened his eyes, the burning desert was gone.
He was standing on solid black stone. Verdamona stood beside him. Before them stretched a hallway. Verdamona turned her head slowly, awe still in her voice.
"Thales... where the hell are we?"
Thales straightened, finally finding his breath again, his eyes narrowing as he stared into the horizon of the celestial hall.
"Verdamona, I think we're in the Synsiline Treasure Vault."