Lucius couldn't remember when he had opened his eyes, or when he had closed them for that matter. He had just found himself here; staring at a familiar fiery ball.
Well, almost familiar.
There were now several dozen golden chains surrounding it, like rings around a planet. It was bigger than before, and brighter. However, some spots were brighter than others and bulged like fiery tumours.
He wasn't certain what this area was; whether it was his core, or the solar crux itself. However, what he was certain of was that it had become unstable.
He knew it wasn't the chains; in fact, they seemed to have a stabilizing effect. They were preventing the bulging areas, which tremored with energy, from growing even larger than they already were.
He suspected that it had something to do with the amount of helios he had collected. It seemed there was a soft limit to how much he could store at once.
