Grams sat in her comfy chair, spinning the orb she'd taken from Emperor Nim's pocket realm in her hand. She stared at the thing, reading over every line of runes that were engraved on its surface.

"Not bad... This should do perfectly." She said to herself, a grin stretching her wrinkled face taut.

Putting the orb back into her storage space, she stood from her chair. Bones creaked and groaned as she tried straightening herself up. Her cane popped into existence and she tip tapped her way along the wood floor to her work room.

Opening the door, she examined the metal flooring that now replaced the formerly wooden surface. She'd already inscribed the thing with two concentric circles, in the middle of which stood the entire metallic plinth the orb had rested on previously.

Grams smiled at her work. She'd taken nearly everything from that pocket dimension once she'd scooped up Torrin. The runes that had surrounded the orb's resting place inside the pocket realm had been meant to draw in ambient mana to power the orb, so she hadn't needed to take them--she just made her own out of Spell-Steel.

She huffed a breath and retrieved a bag of powder from her storage space. Walking slowly, she spread the dust evenly along the runes on the floor. This powder was the pulverized core of a dragon that she'd ground down long ago. She'd been saving it forever and it would help power the script and enhance the strength of the enchantment.

As the dust settled into the runes, it seemed to merge with the metal itself. Seeing the success of her work, she stored the bag of dust away. The core of a dragon was almost non-existent nowadays as there were few remaining dragons left to kill. The dragon had been a purple core beast on the cusp of ascension and the fight had been long and dangerous.

Grams shook her head softly, clearing the memory from her head. She needed to focus on the task ahead of her. Removing the orb once more from her storage place, she mumbled a few words to stir the air around her into a soft cushion of air upon which she sat the orb.

Runes began to appear in the air around the orb as she summoned fire and earth mana under her control. The runes spun around the orb and a soft wind joined the fire and earth mana. She heated one specific line of runes that marred the orbs surface, erasing them, before reforming them with her will. The runes were different now, reshaped for her purposes.

Water sprang to life, cooling the orb's surface and cementing the changes. She stepped over and took the orb in her hands once more. She sucked her teeth and shook her head. It wasn't that the changes were bad, per se, but they weren't her best work. Catching the orb on a cushion of air once more, she repeated the process many times until she felt the runes blended seamlessly with the former design. She'd only changed around one-tenth of the entire surface, but it was the most important part for what she needed.

Once she found the orb to be perfect, she placed it upon its former resting place on the metallic plinth. She stood back from the orb and examined it. She nodded her head once, thinking that she'd done a fine job so far.

The last and probably most important part came next. From within her storage space, she removed a necklace. It was a simple golden chain enchanted to be nearly indestructible. From the chain hung a metal-capped crystal. It looked to be a mana crystal that had been cut into precise dimensions, runes could be seen carved throughout the inner matrix of the thing. White wisps of energy flowed within and she smiled softly at the sight.

"Not too long now..." She said aloud to the necklace. As if it heard her, it brightened slightly--emitting a ghostly, pale white light. Her face split into a broad grin at the sight. She refocused her attention on her task, moving to the hunk of metal that rose from the middle of the room. She had made one change to the plinth--adding a hole that fit the crystal perfectly.

Gingerly, she inserted the crystal into the plinth and stepped back. Gathering her mana, she activated the freshly finished concentric circles of rune script that had been dusted with the dragon's pulverized core.

One by one, the runes began to alight with a silver glow. She watched as the glow spread, racing around the outside circle until every rune shone brightly. The glow seeped into lines that connected it to the inner circle and the mana raced on. After the inner circle was fully lit, the light traveled up the plinth to the crystal's slot. As it lit the runes around the crystal's resting place, the light began to change from silver to the same pale white that the crystal emitted.

The pale white light raced upwards to the orb, following the instructions of the inscribed runes. The orb lit up as the light touched it. The orb shone now, with a bright white glow.

A single drop of sweat fell from Grams' forehead as she watched the process. If this failed, she didn't know what she would do. Torrin was her trump card, but this was the ace up her sleeve. She needed this to work to ensure her victory over Karth.

Nerves rattled Grams and she left the room. She needed to calm down a bit before she tested if her plan had worked or not. She plopped into her chair and sighed in relief. She closed her eyes and took a moment to examine her core.

Her core shone with a pale purple color. Cracks ran across its surface, causing mana to leak from within. Returning to herself, she huffed out a weary sigh.

"Karth, you asshole..." She lamented, thinking of the traitorous man and his actions that had led to her nearly-shattered core.

The man's ambitions had grown to a monstrous proportion. He was willing to destroy entire worlds just to rule over the ashes. It made her nauseous just thinking about it. But what made her blood run cold and kept her up at night was that he thought the rest of them would join him--and the sickening fact that at one point in time, they might have.

Karth had been the second of them to form a purple mana core and it had changed his mentality on nearly everything, causing him to become a man she barely recognized. She had been the first, figuring out that in order to advance from the blue core stage one had to completely understand one of the Higher Laws and fuse that understanding with their mind, body, and soul. Their mana core was a part of their body, so it would accept the knowledge and power granted from the Higher Law, along with part of their Soul Energy.

This made the core advance from the blue core stage to the final stage, a purple core. The power this advancement granted was profound, but it was also the reason why her body was failing her now. The binding between her core and her soul was not just metaphorical, it was a physical connection. She only had two choices before her now; either suffer irreparable soul damage when her core finally shattered or absorb the entire shattered core and all the energy that escaped into herself. Death or Ascension.

A fluctuation of power from her work room stirred her from her musings. She stood and walked over to the closed door, the only sound in the entire hut was her cane tapping the floor as she went. Her contemplation had the exact opposite effect of what she was going for--instead of calming down she was now completely on edge.

Opening the door, she saw the glowing white orb floating slightly above its former resting place--a possible sign of success. She shuffled across the room and slowly sank to the floor, a groan escaping her lips to accompany her aching body. She sat with her back against the pillar and allowed her will to slink towards the floating orb. Her chin fell to her chest as her mind left her body.

Opening her eyes, she saw a giant mansion. Outside the mansion stood a young man in his mid-twenties, grin stretching from ear to ear. Grams mirrored the gesture and realized she didn't feel the usual pulling on the slack skin of her face. Tears welled in her eyes as her gaze lowered to her hands.

The skin was smooth and lightly tanned. The hair atop her head waved before her face, flowing in an unseen wind. It was blonde instead of silver. She looked back to the man standing outside the building. His grin hadn't let up in the slightest, if anything it had grown wider.

"Lars... You sly old fox." She whispered to herself, running the short distance to the man at top speed, luxuriating in the lack of pain. As the two met, their arms wrapped each other tightly and he spun her in a circle.

"It worked, Balencia! It worked..." Lars whispered in her ear as they stood in front of the mansion, wrapping each other tight. Grams cackled loudly.