There were so many things I wanted to say at the moment, but what could I say that would be able to change what was to come? Nothing I say to them matters, and if I continued to indulge my heart and my conscience, I would only go mad.
So, I said, "I am sorry... sleep."
This command was not given to Dara, but to all Acolytes in the camp, and in a moment, they all collapsed.
On the ground, Rex’s eyes were getting so wide it almost popped out of his sockets, as these were the only parts of his body that could move.
"Why are you so afraid of me when you are willingly running towards your death? Do you know what Orath would do to you if he took you into the Caelith?"
Rex’s eyes blinked, and for a moment, I thought I saw defiance inside them, and I shook my head. From the last discussion I had with Rex, I knew that he thought he was going to benefit from the Ascension ceremony... he may not understand all the intricacies of the ritual, but he had been promised power, and for someone like him, that was enough.
I turned to face the camp.
Twenty-four bodies lay on the ground in various positions, frozen in their last acts, but they were not dead, but sleeping; I could even hear some of them snoring... and I don’t know why this made me smile.
"Elric... what... what..."
My eyes widened in surprise, and I turned to look at Dara, who seemed to be fighting off the power of my command. Ah, she was a Blessed, and this gave her certain abilities exceeding those of an Acolyte.
I looked at her and said, "Trust me, Dara, go to sleep, and when you awake, all of this will be over."
Raising my right palm, I manifested several threads above it, and even though I had consumed her blessing in the previous loop, she recognized part of her blessing in my threads... she looked at me with wide eyes filled with questions inside them. I felt her let go of her struggles, and she fell asleep.
Looking away from her, I saw the Adepts approaching me with great apprehension, as if they were preparing for a battle for their lives. Torvin, Fenara, and Varis, behind them and not moving, was Commander Rel, who was looking at me with fear and what I thought was anticipation... was there a possibility that she thought I was a hidden member of the Conclave?
Hell, with what I knew of the Ascension Ritual, and the multiple layers of this plan, with the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing, I could give a convincing performance to deceive her, but why waste the energy for something that was essentially useless to me in the present loop?
The camp was not large, and even with the Adepts walking slowly towards me, they soon reached me in less than a minute, led by Torvin. They all had their staff out facing me, but I could tell that they were shocked by their inability to gather more power around their staff. To them, the essence in the surroundings was gone, and they may think this was my fault.
"What are you?" Torvin called out slowly, as if he were talking to someone who might not know the language. His voice was steady, but his hand was not... I noticed.
"I..." I paused, then I glanced at my hands, "I don’t know. I should be a Mage, but now, I am not so sure about what I am becoming. "
I was met with silence for a while before Adept Fenara cleared her throat,
"That doesn’t answer our question."
I looked up at her, "Your question doesn’t have an answer that will fit in the time we have." I walked toward them, and they tensed up, holding their staff towards me, and power rippled across the head of their staff, but I ignored them and walked past them to the instrument tables.
The only reason why I did not command everyone to sleep in the camp was to avoid damaging the souls of the Acolytes here. A Lightning Edict of such power from me would most likely shatter the soul of every Acolyte here, but this was not my greatest weapon.
As I walked past them, I stretched out my hand, and threads emerged that grabbed all the problematic surveyor stakes that had been rapidly draining all the essence in the air, and stunting the powers of the Adepts here. They all turned towards me, and I continued speaking.
"The Caelith in front of us is not a dormant structure, and it has already been infiltrated by the Conclave, and in... three hours, it will crack open, and demons shall emerge from the earth... this entire continent shall fall, and our Academy would be destroyed."
The moment I had all the stakes, I pulled, and they were all sliced to pieces, and I could feel and see Essence appear out of nowhere and begin to flood the camp.
"Those are the dampeners blocking you from accessing Essence." I gestured at the stakes. "Every one of those is draining the Essence from the air from the moment this expedition began, and I figure you are all smart enough to understand where I am going with this. I am not your enemy here; those two are."
I gestured towards Commander Rel and Orath, and the Adepts turned to see Rel had been sneaking to the side of Orath, who all this while had been watching me as he stood by the side of the pyramid.
"You... you have said so many things that..." Adept Fenara began to speak, but I cut her off, and her face went pale with anger and confusion,
"You are not listening, you have..." I pointed my finger at Rex on the ground, and a single thread emerged from the tip of my finger and penetrated his forehead, and the electricity inside fried his brain to ash, "... three hours, and I am telling you all of this for you all to run... take the Acolytes and move to the nearest outpost. Send word to the Academy, the Conclave of Ysmar is attacking the continent; this is the most I can do for you all at this time."
Saying this, I turned away and held my hand towards Orath and Rel, and a dense web of lightning suddenly surrounded them, and I pulled them closer to me.
Rel tried to fight against the pull, but it was useless, and Orath was watching me without saying a word.