I blinked as I latched onto the words said by the Arcanist and the Hollow Avatar, and neither of them was good news.
With my limited knowledge as an Acolyte, I thought that domains were spells similar to my Lightning Dominion of the past, but I was only scratching the surface; it went deeper than that, even touching the mysteries of space itself.
The Hollow Avatar had displayed nothing but competence so far, and the fact that it was surprised by the abilities of an Arcanist was not a good thing for me, however, I was not too shocked either, the Hollow Avatar had a faint sense of superiority around everything it said or did, and I don’t want to repeat how many times it thought of my body or the powers of this world as weak or flawed.
But this was not the time or place for me to find out it was wrong, or even rub its face in it. Although I will not lie that I had a quiet satisfaction when I heard it said it was wrong.
Although thinking about it, recently, the Hollow Avatar seemed to be helpless or ignorant about some things, from my shell to the true strength of an Arcanist tier mage.
Then there was the Arcanist, and the fact that they called me a Celestial Golem. Did they think I was the same as the Gate Wardens? A construct that had survived the purge that made the Caelith fall from the heavens, and I was still running my ancient program to safeguard the prison?
Then I thought about my appearance. I was glowing, my skin was see-through, and if I had seen myself before the loop, I would have thought I was looking at a God of Lightning. Then, was it so far-fetched that they thought they were looking at a leftover construct?
However, from my brief clash with these Arcanists, I knew they were wily, and anything they said may be to throw me off, and I should take whatever came from their mouths as lies, until I was able to confirm it for myself.
What truly concerned me was the mention of an Arnean Formation, and the name felt strangely... Celestial. I knew of Formations, or I thought I knew of formations, because I believed they needed time and materials to be built, but these Arcanists were taking me to school in the worst ways possible.
Barely a moment had passed when the Arcanist had called me a Celestial Golem before they all made a move. Their hands came up, and the air between them began to shimmer, and I nearly choked as Anima filled the space, and there was so much of it that I could as well be underwater.
Lightning began to arise from my skin as I was about to become Lightning Incarnate when I felt the Anima transform.
Remember that any magic I could do, any lightning bolt I threw, came as a result of my channels transforming Anima into magic. My Legendary Title changed that dynamic by making me a Storm Source, but fundamentally, any magic I could do had to come from my channels.
If I poured out my Anima without changing it in my channels, then it would be useless, and it would disperse in the air, and the only result it would give me was a moment of weakness as my Anima Depth regenerated the loss.
Well, as an Arcanist, it seemed they could affect the Anima outside their bodies. Was this a unique power of the Arcanist from the Conclave, or were all Arcanists the same? I did not know, but this threw me off, as the transformation of Anima that had just occurred was the so-called Arnean Formation, activating.
Space seemed to stretch, and the hall suddenly expanded; this expansion included the Arcanist, and in a blink of an eye, the four of them became giants thousands of meters tall, but I remained the same, and in comparison to them, I was as small as an ant.
Lightning burst out of my skin, but it emerged slowly; even a snail would move faster than the threads of lightning emerging from my skin. My thoughts were not slow, so I knew I was not frozen in time, but my body had become trapped, like a fly in amber.
My fears were correct; this formation was indeed related to the Celestials because I could feel that what binds me seemed to have a more suppressive effect on my celestial side, even the presence of the Hollow Avatar had vanished from my soul, as if he had been muted.
The air was thicker, heavier, and the light from my channels dimmed as if the formation was drinking it. A web of power wrapped around me, and I felt it press against my channels, trying to bind me, to hold me still. It was stronger than the spatial binding the grey-eyed Arcanist had used when I first encountered him, denser, woven with the strength of four Arcanists working as one.
Was this a domain of space meant to capture me? That would be far worse than killing me.
I heard loud clangs as if massive chains were moving overhead, and the ground shook as four massive chains truly appeared in the hands of the four Arcanists who surrounded me. The end of the chains fell to the ground, then the chains began to slither towards me, each link as big as my entire body.
My face was frozen in a snarl of defiance, and as the chains neared me, I noted that the Anima in my channels was beginning to flow faster, and my eyes began to blaze.
I felt a chill as I was surrounded by the chains, and they began to twist around my body, but the Anima in my channels was only flowing faster and faster, and I could even feel that the changes in my channels were becoming faster, as if the suppressive effect of this formation was triggering the shell to become complete faster.
My eyes were about to be covered by the chains, leaving me in darkness when I had had enough.
The roar that came out of me did not emerge from my mouth, but from my chest; it was as if my soul itself was the one that was screaming, as I summoned my Legendary Spell, Lightning Tribunal, with full strength for the first time.