OBTAINING THE CROWN OF ELOORA
I entered the core of the Eloora machine without resistance, bracing myself for the extreme conditions I knew awaited me.
Dense, powerful magic enveloped me, its intensity so overwhelming that it would have crushed an ordinary person—or even a legendary being. The pressure in Eloora's core was formidable, capable of breaking anyone who dared to enter.
My clothes were incinerated by the flames within the core, yet I remained unscathed, untouched by the destructive forces that sought to tear me apart.
Then, without warning, my skin began to emit an eerie, invisible glow—not a light to be seen, but a darkness that consumed all the light around me, plunging everything into pitch blackness. Even the potent magic in the core couldn't escape the pull of this void and was absorbed into me.
I pressed forward, moving deeper into the core.
Gradually, the flames that had once burned me and the forces that tried to crush me faded away. At the heart of the core, I found myself surrounded by a chaotic arraye of magical runes, scattered haphazardly in every direction.
With deliberate care, I began to rearrange the runes, guiding them into a new, precise alignment.
The process was slow and meticulous, but eventually, the runes clicked into place, and the puzzle of the magic arraye solved.
Suddenly, a glowing band or crown appeared on my head, flickering briefly before settling—a sign that I had gained the Crown of Eloora, the key to this mysterious machine.
Just as I was about to leave the core, the ground beneath me trembled violently. The carefully arranged runes began to break apart once more, and the world around me shifted.
In an instant, I was transported to a strange realm, surrounded by puzzles resembling Rubik's cubes of various shapes and sizes.
I had entered another magical realm, though its location remained a mystery.
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[Some time before attempting the Trial of Eloora]
"Where can we find a candidate from the royal Drach family who is qualified to restart the Eloora machine?" Raven asked me.
"The candidate doesn't need to come from the royal family. I can attempt the trial myself", I told them.
"How is it possible? You don't have Drach's royal blood?" Mistral asked me curiously.
"The Eloora machine recognizes the blood of the royal Drach family and not the descendant of King Drach", I told them.
"Is there a difference?" Raven asked me.
"All I need is the blood of a royal Drach whose blood is compatible to mine", I told them.
"Why do you need that? How will it help?" Ratatouille asked.
"We don't need a candidate from the royal family, only someone with royal blood. I just need an infusion of blood from a Drach royal whose blood is compatible with mine", I explained to them.
"I've found a Drach royal with a blood type similar to yours and I've extracted his blood. We are ready for a blood infusion", Asterix said to me.
"Blood Infusion?" Queen Mistral asked.
"Do you think having some royal blood in you will trick the Eloora machine? Will a little blood help?" Ratatouille asked.
"The Eloora machine only needs to recognize the presence of King Drach's bloodline in me even if there may be a little of it, I don't need to be born with the bloodline to enter the core, I think", I told them.
"Well, we'll only know if this will work once you try it", Mistral said.
"What about the puzzle in the core, how are you going to solve it?" Ratatouille asked me.
"The puzzle in the core isn't actually a puzzle but giving the machine instructions to restart itself. Once inside the core, Asterix can guide me. She's studied all the runes and manuals that the Mages of Prolis left behind about the machine", I replied to him.
"What will happen if you pass the Trial of Eloora? Will they make up a story about you being a long-lost royal of the Drach family? A distant bastard maybe," Raven asked me.
"That is a good story, and it'll make it easier to convince the noble families in Drachia to surrender to us. We'll spice it up a little more though. I'll get Reageon to come up with a detailed story in the Herald Times about my Drach bloodline and ancestry", I replied to him.
"How about the test of strength in the core? Only Blue tiered legendary beings could pass it", Queen Mistral asked me worriedly.
"Nothing much can break my Dark Angel skin when my Black Heart is nourishing it with magic", I replied to her.
"Don't worry, he's invincible now. Almost", Ratatouille said to the queen to reassure.
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"There is an Order within the chaos", a voice said out to me suddenly as I faced the world with puzzles and Rubik cubes.
The voice belonged to a girl who sat on an enormous puzzle, her hands fidgeting on a smaller one. She was a little girl about nine in age dressed in a colorful dress made from the little cubes on Rubix cube puzzles.
She was trying to solve a Rubik cube puzzle.
"What is this place? How did I get here?" I asked the voice.
"You are inside a corridor between the Realm of Order and Chaos", the girl replied to me.
"I don't understand. How did I get here?" I asked her.
"The crown on your head is the key into the Realm of Order", the girl told me.
"I thought the Crown of Eloora is the key to the Eloora machine", I replied to her.
"Silly, how can a machine produce so much magic for the Knights of Order if the source of magic did not come from the Realm of Order. The Eloora machine is the method the Mages use to access Order's power and magic", the girl told me.
What the girl said made sense to me now and I began to understand the Eloora machine.
What King Drach discovered in the Temple of Eloora wasn't just any magic mine or source, it was the corridor to the Realm of Order. The Mages of Prolis created the Eloora machine to help the Knights of Order in Drachia grow their magic by tapping on the source of Order.