(Book 6) Hayden Mackay and The Third-Eye of the Pancharatna

22.2 Nature's Mandates

These ovoid towers weren't like eggs, they were eggs. This must be the place Shashi had been sowing, cultivating, and harvesting his clan. It must be another skilled dark magic Shashi must have inherited from Almourah, that was also well adapted to withstand their Formation.

"Constellia Formation!" She yelled.

Vrishabha appeared, her giant-like posture giving Celina a feeling of security. Celina ordered Vrishabha to go to the opposite side and start smashing every freaking tower.

Celina and her Constellia went on a rampage, although with careful precision. They sliced the towers and smashed them into the ground, sending icy splinters flying everywhere. A heavy mass of liquid fell on the floor from some of them, while from others the plumes whooshed through the air, creeping up throughout the chamber. The smell gathered and turned intolerable. The cries were deafening. The counterpressure on Celina's ears was too much to endure. Her head ached and tears shed. But Celina wouldn't stop. No time to worry about the pain. Just smash. Finish it off.

She was vigilant as well. What if somewhere in this mess Shashi had hidden the Shaatrumani or Pruthvi's Emerald? Or the baby?

Celina slammed against the side of the chamber and nearly stumbled. She frowned. There was the slow-moving stream flowing away to the unknown. She spotted a smaller creature, its eyes crushed drifting away with the gentle current of the stream.

Celina turned around and took a long breath. The chamber was L shaped and terrifyingly huge. She turned back to check. The portion of the chamber she had finished was covered with layers of ice debris, piles of the thick orange mass flowing into the stream, and the trail of her footprints amidst them. She resumed her attacks, deflecting her airy swordlike spikes. Then a sharp tug in her gut forced her to slow down. Celina gritted her teeth. Hunger pangs were beginning to strike and more than three-quarters of the chamber was left to destroy.

What if she used that Formation? Should she form a tornado belowground? Will this basement survive its intensity? What if the destruction pumped an alarming quality of devastation into the forest above? What about the poor trees, animals, and birds? Moreover, this could create bigger hurdles for her to find the gemstones. This newfound Formation of hers had the power to destroy a mountain. Hadn't she witnessed it before? Just one attack, her conscience insisted and the multiplication of Shashi's clan will cease forever and in turn cease causing more havoc.

The cries came soaring to her ears. The galloping thick plumes etched around her, threatening her, daring her.

Celina closed her eyes and thought through a new strategy. The intensity was dependent on the severity of her concentration, the whole basis of the Formation that it was. Being the master, she would decide its intensity. She could make it work, that much she knew but the lack of energy to pull it off bothered her. A full-blown catastrophic formation had always been easier to form rather than a bent one. Another hunger pang struck in her stomach. This was her cue. She closed her eyes, concentrating hard on her stone and creating a mental picture according to the Formation she wanted to perform.

A relatively small rope-like tornado swirled far away from her, the gust of which created a massive cloud of ice and smoke right below the roof of the chamber. Celina commanded her stone and with subtle swiftness, the tornado ripped through the towers ravaging as it went. The chamber sprang up in an almighty bang. To say that the cries of the unborn creatures and the shattering sounds of the towers were frightening was an understatement. Celina fell on her knees, having her hands clapped against her ears. She gasped and writhed, her face grimacing, her concentration dwindling. She looked up, forcing attention on her stone. The tornado growing and shrinking in size, stayed resilient to finish the task. Thicker smoke bellowed in waves as though wildfire. Celina coughed, feeling smoke filling in her lungs. Tears dripped. The pain was now so excruciating, she never had a hard time concentrating on her stone like today.

Banging on the floor and screaming with pain, Celina mustered up resilience and courage to stay put. A minute passed by and then another. The tornado was still there, she could feel its presence but the smoke obstructed her from discerning its magnitude. Perhaps I should leave, Celina thought, and come back later with my friends. It would be foolish to force herself more on this. The pressure was driving her into unconsciousness and she hated the idea of troubling her friends to come to her rescue.

The ground suddenly shook. There was an unpleasant rattle beneath her knees, as though hitting a speed breaker at a high rate speed. What the fresh hell was that? Celina was lost in her frazzled thoughts that it took her a few moments to realize the enormity happening at the canopy of the chamber. A new terror gripped her heart. The smoke twisting above turned much more violent and crude, blasting the roof of the basement. She gritted her teeth and cursed herself. Bad decision. She should have never used her Formation.

The stream then came to life forming a white-blue-green wave. With the height of this place, it rose and seeped towards her swiftly and unforgivingly, like a felling axe coming for a tree's trunk. It crashed against the remaining towers and collided with the remains, sweeping the contents, and washing away the chamber clean.

Celina was hungry, tired, and physically listless. She estimated the time required to run back to the hole she had come crawling in. Sadly, there was none. The water came threateningly towards her. The cries of the creatures echoed under the ferocity of the gale.

Celina sat there, head hung over and shoulders slumped down. She wasn't sorry but proud for putting down a barricade, stopping Shashi's clan from growing, and preventing the country suffer from more intimidation. She closed her eyes and smiled. What was the worst that could happen now anyway? At least she knew, she wasn't going to die.

Water came over, cold and powerful. Celina felt her lungs exploding. She was taken off and drifted away, getting thoroughly soaked and buffeted by the strong current of the wave. To her surprise, a feeling of relaxation swelled within her. It was like having a massage against her exhausted body. She refrained from trying to use her stone anymore. This feeling of relaxation felt...nice.

Celina may have hardly ever felt so tired. Was she reaching her limit? How much she wanted this to be over. This pressure, this strain, this tension. Shashi's death, oh the wait to see Shashi dead seemed to be prolonging ever and forever. Only she wished it was worth it.

It might have been an hour or two, or only nine minutes, she wouldn't know. But somebody was shaking her shoulders and giving her mouth-to-mouth. With a long deep gasp, Celina woke up at once, water rushing out from her lungs which she spat away. Dim light felt piercing into the dark interior.

Blurry that it was, she allowed her vision to set in. And Tyrell's worried face appeared. Water and blood dripped from his hair and down his chin and coating his neck red. He looked terribly beaten. Her heart sank.  

Something very wrong had happened to him. 

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