The crumbling sounds coming from the guardian's shell were incredible to witness. The whole thing falling apart sounded more like a landslide going downhill than anything else, with cracks and rumbles echoing throughout the valley we had used to fight. Or rather, that we were fighting in, as the spirit reminded me moments later when a storm of Ice and Sand sprang up around it, the air filling with small particles under its control.

At the centre of the storm was the spirit, its form not invisible as I had assumed but a distinct, corporeal existence. Its core was, as far as I could see, a shimmering rock, roughly the size of my head. That part was pretty unremarkable; it was just another gemstone. While they were rare naturally, especially in that size, magic made many things possible. And here, magic was obviously involved. Otherwise, the dim glow the rock was alight with would be hard to explain, especially as it shifted and fluctuated, allowing me to discern a few things about our enemy.

Its colour told me quite a few things about the spirit, primarily that I had been correct in assuming its elemental affinity was primarily Earth, with a distinct focus on the crystalline, rocky aspects of the element, rather than those closer to Life and Death. Maybe that was why the spirit had assimilated the Nexus' power so well, adding an affinity to Ice to itself, or it had that affinity from the start, just not as predominant as it was now.

Regardless, the thing was now trying to scour the flesh from our bones, the zone around it completely filled with countless small particles, all swirling around in an utterly chaotic fashion. Without the various traits improving my senses, seeing the thing would have been difficult, though finding it was trivial. It wasn't smart enough to offset the centre of the storm around it from its own position, allowing anyone with a bit of sense to accurately judge its position.

Not that knowing where the thing was helped all that much; nothing would get through a storm that intense, not with the amount of sand and ice the air was filled with. Nothing physical, that is.

Luckily, I wasn't limited to the physical world and had access to numerous tricks that were anything but. After all, a shadow had little use for a physical presence, and forging a thought and Mind Magic in general into a physical construct was a challenge I suddenly wanted to attempt. If only because it sounded utterly fascinating, to give ideas, concepts, a physical presence in some way, what would it look like? What would the idea of 'cold' look like, or maybe something more complex? How about the idea of love, or knowledge?

Shaking off the moment of contemplation, I focused my mind back to the battle at hand; these questions could be investigated much, much later.

Given that the spirit's corporeal form was sheltered in the storm, I either had to overpower the storm, either by breaking it completely or by scaling my attacks up to the point that it didn't matter, or I had to circumvent it outright.

As I had no idea how solid the spirit's physical anchor was, I decided to deploy my usual solution for troubles like this and strike at everything but its physical form. There was no need to try cracking a tough stone, especially not one that was shielded by a massive storm, if I could simply attack the spirit's animus, its mind and soul. I might even be able to bind the spirit, similar to the one I already had bound, allowing me to make use of this tremendous power. Having such monstrous strength would make quite a few projects trivially easy, especially as it would mean I wouldn't have to use my own power. Sure, I could likely bring the same level of power to bear, but it would be quite exhausting. I had no idea if a stone could be exhausted in the first place, or how its recovery worked, but having the option would be good.

So, my attack was quite similar to the ones I had used initially. Darkness Magic, Mind Magic and now, as the spirit was a lot more exposed, some Soul Magic added in for good measure. Mainly conceptual attacks, trying to disorient and confuse the spirit, something I realised was actually fairly easy, maybe because a chunk of its power had been anchored in the shell we had just destroyed.

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Not that confusing the spirit did a whole lot of good at the moment. It wasn't as if it was actively aiming to fight us; it was just sitting there, possibly trying to regain its faculties, and shredding its surroundings with the storm of stone and ice all around it. There was no need for precision, no need for perception; it only needed power, which it had in spades.

Luna tried to project some divine magic into the swirling storm of rock and ice, only for the power to flare between the various particles, creating fascinating fractal patterns that were quite similar to lightning, wrapped around the sphere. While I wasn't sure what she had tried, I was confident that it hadn't worked as planned.

Lia, on the other hand, tried something similar to what I was doing, trying to twist the spirit's perception of reality to look for a weakness. Or maybe she was trying to prevent it from orienting itself, thereby stopping its ability to hide underground until it could rebuild its shell, which would be incredibly annoying.

Still, I needed some way to bind or destroy the spirit, not just confuse and confound it. As I was channelling more magic into the storm and the spirit hiding in the centre, I noticed that some of the patterns within the storm and in the way the spirit was reaching out and interacting with the storm started to change. I wasn't sure what that change might portend, but I was confident it wouldn't be good for us. If the spirit managed to regain cohesion, it could very well rebuild its shell, maybe into a form better suited to fight us.

Previously, its shell had been designed to be powerful and enduring, sacrificing speed, agility, and subtlety for that purpose. Sure, a big part of its overwhelming power came from the synergy between its chosen form and the elements it commanded but that didn't mean there were no forms it could take that focused on other aspects. Depending on the traits involved, it was entirely possible that a different form would be able to strike a fatal blow against one of us before we managed to adjust, especially if a new form was focused on speed.

So, I continued to disrupt the patterns that were trying to form, adding Death, Mind, and Soul Magic into the processes that were trying to take shape. They still formed, but warped, crippled by my influence, twisting the overall pattern further and further. It was a fascinating sight, especially when the twisting pattern of magical energy started to influence reality. Arcs and streamers of chaotic energy were ripping through the storm, sometimes whipping outwards, forcing us to keep our distance as these arcs of power were far from benign, as we soon saw.

One of these arcs struck the ground nearby, shattering the rocks and causing strange crystals to sprout, driving home the fact that getting hit by these effects would be bad. Seriously, likely fatally, bad.

Seconds turned into minutes as I continued to make a mess of the forming patterns, influencing and twisting them into something new and exciting. The storm was slowing down, but it was still going strong, too strongly to reach the core in the centre via physical means.

Noticing a particular formation, I added a bit of Darkness Magic into it, trying to strengthen this one, thinking it would warp the overall effect even further and cause the storm to drop completely. I recognised part of the pattern as something used to move rocks, though I wasn't completely certain of its exact nature but I was fairly confident that the chaotic, ever-changing nature of Darkness Magic would make things interesting.

Then, just as that particular twist was finished and snapped into place, things suddenly started to twist and warp in a dramatic, completely unforeseen manner.

"Down!" Lia screamed, while Luna and I immediately used our magic to create cover, uncertain just what was happening with the spirit. The storm started to contract wildly, rocks and ice from all over the valley started to shoot towards the spirit, making me wonder if I had messed up, allowing the spirit to recover. However the various arcane forms I could faintly see in the storm weren't orderly; they kept twisting and changing in utter chaos while more and more magic was infused into the storm.

For a few seconds, we just lay there, hidden in a trench I had dug with my Earth Magic as I was continuously reinforcing our cover, while Luna was forming a cocoon of roots and plants around us, adding to the small nest we had. Then, everything paused for a split-second, the air above us stilling, as if the world was holding its breath for a moment.

Until a thunderous explosion swallowed all sound, light and thought.

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