As soon as Merrick got the first piece close to the Earth Platform, it started to vibrate. When he stepped onto the Platform, it shot out of his hand and fused with the spindly remains of the Crystal Coffin. It was larger now, but by no means close to the size of the others.
Merrick felt a thrum of power similar to the grave feeling that came with the undead but this energy had a clean feeling; it was un-corrupted. The Elemental's voice followed shortly after. It came through nearly unbroken and much softer.
--Thank you for returning the first piece. I feel that the second is now within your grasp… though the third is still…--
"The third is still..?" Merrick asked.
--You must hurry. I feel the third piece approaching rapidly. It is descending along with… Lightning.--
"Great." Merrick looked to where the stardust line was leading for the second piece. "It looks like it's sunk pretty deep into that wall. How am I supposed to get to it?"
There was no direct answer from the Elemental, but the stardust snapped to attention and shifted along the wall instead of going through it. The trail ran along the perimeter, reminding Merrick of an old game called Snake, and it eventually ran into a doorway.
--Use the service corridor. It is not direct but it will lead to !!--
The Elemental was cut off as something crashed into the platform with enough force to knock Merrick to his knees. Dazed, it took him a second to realize what had happened. When he looked up, there was a gigantic stone figure.
It was a golem of some sort, Merrick realized, but it was very different from the Sentry Golems that he had encountered when he first started exploring the prison. This golem stood nearly ten feet tall and half as wide. Its body was composed of stone sections linked together by what looked like chains of lightning. There was just a smooth lump where its neck should have led up to a head and set into its chest was the third piece of the Crystal Coffin.
--GET THE SECOND PIECE! I AM NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO PULL THE THIRD PIECE FROM THE WARDEN'S PUPPET!--
The Warden's Puppet, as the Elemental called it, was directly between Merrick and the door. The rapid descent must've messed with the golem as much as it threw Merrick off because it was recovering. From its size, Merrick assumed it could take him down in a single blow. He suddenly regretted playing a Mage.
All he had were a few spells and… a dagger that he definitely left on the shelf in the Old Library. Merrick drew the dagger and somehow understood the runes better than he had before. There must have been a new entry in his Knowledge Archive about it but there was no point in trying to check that now. All he understood was that it disrupted magical energy somehow.
The stardust trail that led to the third piece was nearly a solid rope between Merrick and the golem. In the same way that he had pulled the first piece to him, Merrick wrapped his hand around the trail and gave the third piece a tug. It felt like an anchor.
Feeling more with his own magic than with his hand, Merrick coiled the stardust around his arm until it was tightly wound like a spring. He then did the same to the trail that led to the second piece of the Crystal Coffin and launched himself forward toward the Warden's Puppet just as it raised itself up to its full height.
Merrick aimed for the lightning chain connecting the Puppet's abdomen and torso. The dagger lashed out and pulled the lightning chains into it. Energy crackled through the dagger into Merrick's arm, a system notification flared letting him know about a temporary speed buff from the absorbed lightning.
Even without reading the notification fully, Merrick could feel the difference as he zipped past the falling golem and followed the second trail. The Warden's Puppet for long, it was already standing up again by the time Merrick made it through the door.
Just like the Earth Elemental had warned him, the corridor that Merrick found himself running down was not a straight path but with the help of the stardust trail, he made it relatively quickly to where the second piece of the Crystal Coffin was stuck into the wall.
A rumbling sound drew Merrick's attention back the way he came. The Warden's Puppet was barreling down the corridor toward him. Merrick thought of the Pure Earth Elemental he was going to anger in a second and tried his best to send a mental apology before using the strange dagger to pry the second piece from the wall.
Sparks scattered. Merrick felt a scream in his bones that stopped as soon as the second piece broke free of the wall. It hovered through the air and tried to fly back to its former self but it did not fit through the hole it originally came through. Excess stone had clung to the edges.
The Warden's Puppet was nearly upon him. Merrick apologized again, this time out loud, "I'm sorry!"
Then he punched the second piece through the hole with a blast of arcane energy. It shot forward like a bullet down a barrel. Merrick felt a rage coursing through the earth around him and he hoped that restoring the Earth Elemental to its full power would make up for the pain he had caused.
Just as the Warden's Puppet reached him, the walls melted away and the stone swirled like waves. The Warden's Puppet lost its footing, but Merrick's remained solid beneath his feet. It seemed like the Earth Elemental was in anguish but not necessarily angry at him.
Merrick watched as the final piece of the Crystal Coffin was torn from the giant golem and returned to its rightful home. The floors and walls settled but a new path remained that allowed Merrick to walk directly back to the Earth Platform in a straight line.
Halfway down the path, the Warden's Puppet was stuck to the ceiling. Chains of lightning struggled to try and move the golem's body but it was nearly fused to the structure of the ceiling now.
The Earth Elemental, returned to its full power, was now screaming:
--MY BROTHER YOUR ARROGANCE KNOWS NO BOUNDS! TO TRY AND USE A GOLEM OF MY OWN AGAINST ME! YOU SHALL DIE!--
Merrick thought it was rage at first but then it devolved into laughing. The Earth Elemental was in a joyous mood and Merrick wondered if there was mental damage from the Crystal Coffin's fracturing.
With a deep breath, he realized that after a little more dialogue with the seemingly insane Earth Elemental, he would probably need to take a break.