The sound of blades rattled loudly throughout the forest as Zelr and the creature collided. Their blades pushed against each other fighting desperately to outweigh the other.

"Enough!" The creature roared, pushing Zelr back with a single whip of his weapon. "Where’s the girl—"

Before he could finish his sentence the sound of bones crunched against iron, his rib collapsing under Lailla’s gauntlets. His body skidded against the earth, the rocks shooting up as it got dug up from under him.

The creature groaned as it pushed itself to its hands, its vision more blurry than usual. The forest melted around it, its head hot and wound burned deeply.

"Even knowing you’ll lose u still wont look past your pride." Veira muttered, walking up to the creature as it struggled to keep on its feet.

"I despise creatures like you,"

"Y-you..."

Gushes of blood spouted from the creature’s mouth interrupting his words. It’s hand clawing against the earth in a desperate attempt to regain himself.

"Don’t try to speak,"

She kneeled to his side. Despite everything her hands gently lift his chin to her face, lime green eyes staring right into his. "I’ll give you one more chance, kay?"

"Do you surrender..."

***

It was cold at the peak, the wind blowing through Astra’s hair with a chilling touch. She turned to see the others, Belk and Godrick just catching up to the climb.

"Are you...gonna tell us...what this is about now?!" Belk panted, brow drenched in sweat as he got up to look at the horizon the view gave. Just as the sun began to rise once again for the new day.

Rays of light peaked past the surrounding pillars, the birth of a new morning upon them as the winds started to pick up their coats fluttering wildly.

Both Belk and Godrick watched in silence as Astra took it all in, her hand on her hips as she felt the sun’s embrace.

"This is it," She muttered to herself, her voice quiet under the soft howling of the morning breeze.

"What?" Both Godrick and Belk glanced at each other with confused gazes.

"Alright, we’re getting to work now!" She declared, pulling the bag off of Godrick’s back hastily. It fell to the ground with a heavy thud, the technician digging through until the copper and wire were grasped firmly in her hands.

"Wait a sec! You still haven’t told us—"

"We don’t have much time!" Astra snapped, cutting Belk’s thought short. She stared him in the eyes with an urgent glare, holding the copper wire and rod up to him. "Hurry and help me set up."

"...Alright,"

He took it from her hand, planting the rod into the pillar’s peak before giving the thumbs up to Godrick, who held the copper wire.

"Alright...get on," He muttered gruffly as Astra fit herself on the man’s back, the backpack strapped against hers.

"You hangin on tight there?" He asked, waiting for Astra to confirm.

"Kay, ready." She announced, clinging to him like her life depending on it. Without needing a second he jumped off the pillar, his hands digging into the rocks edge as he made his descent.

The heavy breeze thrashed against her hair, her eyes shut tightly as she waited for it to be over.

Eventually Godrick lets go, his body leaping away from the stone pillar and landing on his feet at the bottom with a heavy thud.

"We’re down," Astra finally lets go at his words. Stumbling slightly as she came in contact with the ground once more.

She unloaded everything from her bag, jars filled with metal foils and conductive wire all lined in a parallel line, along with a clay spool wrapped in iron wire and finally a lead-acid battery.

"Finally," She stretched her back, glad to get that thing off of it.

"Can I come down now?!" Belk shouted from the top, his voice almost lost from how high up he was. "It’s cold up here!"

"Yeah, it’s all set down here!" Astra shouted up to him. As he began to scale to the bottom Godrick watched as Astra connected everything together, connecting the jars to the clay spool wrapped in iron wire, before finally connecting that to the lead-acid battery.

"Finally...I thought I was gonna freeze to death..." Belk muttered as he finally touched the earth’s floor. His eyes immediately went to the contraption Astra was cooking up.

"Are you gonna finally explain?"

Astra pushed to her feet, dusting off her lap as she took a step back to admire her work for a moment. "We’re upgrading our battery!"

"Upgrading?" Godrick raised a brow to her statement, his hands crossed.

"Do you remember the battery we used?" Astra questioned.

"Oh! The ones we used to make those flashlights?" Belk spoke up, his hands balled into fists as it all started to click for him. "They had a ton of issues right?"

"Exactly!" Astra snapped her fingers, a smug smile plastered all over her face. "We couldn’t recharge them, plus they only last hours, a week if we’re lucky not to mention how weak they were."

"So I thought it was time to take our power to the next level, you see, the rocks surrounding Veira’s ’kingdom of science’ were sedimentary rocks."

"And from those we get?"

"Lead!" Belk spoke up once more.

"Exactly right!" She clapped, her hands clasped together for a moment longer before she continued her thought. "To get the jist of it, using lead I turned it into two completely different things using completely different processes, that along with using the sulfuric acid causes a chemical reaction and makes it all muddy, turning them both into lead sulfate,"

"But introducing electricity, and giving it a path to enter, they get restless and turn back into their unstable states, forcing them to store the storm’s energy until a path is back."

"So...like shock absorption but...electrons?" Belk muttered in awe, kneeling down to look at the contraption she lined near the pillar.

"Something like that yeah,"

"How do you know there’s even gonna be a storm here," Godrick pondered, looking up to the sky that remained as clear as it could be. "It doesn’t seem like a storm will be happening for a while yet."

"These pillars have traces of electricity in them, that can only happen if you get struck by the stuff on a regular basis," She explained, wearing the empty bag on her back once more. "Besides, we have time, we came here for resources, surely a storm will come before we head on home."

"So we’re leaving this here?" Belk shot up, clearly opposed to the idea, but Astra paid him no mind, walking past him to continue their search.

"We’re not going far, don’t worry, nothing’s gonna happen to em," She waved off dismissively as the boy stewed with his concerns. Godrick patted the boy’s back, causing him to stumble forward as he too took the road ahead behind Astra.

"Well...You’re the boss I guess, I still don’t see how this connects to flying though," Belk groaned, jogging to catch up with the two of them. The soft sound of rustling grass filled the air as they ventured.

"One thing at a time,"

"Sure,sure..."

’Ever since that fight...Celi wouldn’t wake up at all—and my powers are worse off because of it...’ Astra thought, her hand coming to her lips as it crossed her mind again...

Suddenly Godrick pulled her back, the girl stumbling on her rear as a loud stabbing sound hit the earth. Her eyes landed on a spear that stuck where she once stood.

"We have company."