Shutting Down The Core

Looking around the castle Xilo made everyone split up to save time while they searched for the core. Xilo had Yulrin do a check around the place to see if there was anything they were missing. Once she had confirmed his thoughts Xilo was sure the core was somewhere here. Going through the rubble Xilo checked every corner he could find. "This might take a while." Entering the centre tower this was the only place left he hadn't checked out. Pushing a couple of the rocks that had fallen in the entrance out of the way Xilo walked inside. The staircase leading upwards had been broken. "Which leaves down." Following a small staircase underground Xilo found a small room.

"It has to be here."

Going around the room he moved every shelf, chair and everything else he could get his hands on. He even started to put some of his energy through walls to see if there was something on the other side. "Nothing." Left with disappointment Xilo sat in the centre of the room as he surveyed the place. "Where are you hiding." Tapping his chin Xilo took a step forward and instantly tripped. Eating dust Xilo pulled himself up off the ground. "Am I really this clumsy?" Glancing at where he stepped before Xilo noticed a small crack in the floor. Moving closer Xilo shoved his hand in the crack as he felt around. "This is where you were hiding." Energy pulsed as a bit of air passed through his fingers. Ripping the floor off piece by piece XIlo revealed what he was looking for.

A small ball of cyan light floated in a cubby hole pulsating energy into the area around it. "This is the core." Katrin had given him a good idea of what it would look like. "It seems quite gentle." For it being large as a grown dog it was quite impressive. The aura around it was calm and inviting, not at all like the evil they're made out to be by Katrin. "It's good at pretending." After what it did to Xelfia's Mother, Xilo didn't doubt for a second that it was acting docile. "How do I deal with this without destroying them though." Bringing his hand closer to the blue ball Xilo touched it.

*Zzzzzztttttt*

It instantly shocked him, causing him to bring back his hand while electricity ran through his arm.

"It doesn't like being touched it seems. That's going to make things difficult....."

Closing his eyes Xilo went into the core of his mind as he saw a woman floating all on her own with her eyes closed.

"I doubt you're sleeping, I can hear your pulse speeding up. Got any suggestions on how to deal with this thing?"

Peeking one eye at Xilo, the woman suppressed a laugh.

"Surely you jest, I know a lot but I'm not some kind of encyclopaedia of knowledge. Please don't come running to me when you get stuck, I don't have a lot of energy so it's hard to stay awake like this."

"My bad, I just didn't want to try testing the waters with something that could easily kill me and I figured you might have a few ideas."

Sighing, Althea looked at the idiot in front of her. "Still the same even after all these years." Shaking her head, she took a peek into the outside world as she analysed the core. "Yup, this thing would kill him in an instant if he's not careful." The energy and aggression that it had was hidden quite deep. "Destroying it isn't possible for him, even being this close." She had overheard a few conversations he had with the woman named Katrin. If destroying it wasn't an option then they would need to calm it down. "Wait..could Xilo gain control of it?" Her heart rate spiked as she thought about that. "It's incredibly risky but the rewards..." If he managed to take control of more Astral Zones then her dream might actually come true sooner than she thought.

"Hey Xilo, try dropping a bit of your energy into the ball from afar. I want to see what happens."

"Uhm..sure."

Xilo was a bit sceptical but since he asked her for help he listened.

"Like this?"

A drop of Astral energy left his hand and landed on top of the orb.

"That's fine."

Althea watched as it interacted with the orb for a quick second before sizzling out.

"Interesting...."

Ideas started to swirl in her head as she asked Xilo to try again. Watching closely each time she asked him to do it in other ways. Using different energy, amounts and power. "It's absorbing his energy, using it for itself." Taking advantage of the core's greed a grin surfaced on Althea's face. "It's not guaranteed to work but it'll do." Telling Xilo to use his energy she added a bit of her own to the pool as it dropped onto the core. Letting it suck at her energy force, she told Xilo to travel deeper while it was distracted. Slithering his energy down into the core, Xilo listened to the woman carefully as the energy started to take root inside the core.

"Good, let your energy rest there. We managed to sneak you inside of this greedy little bugger. Make sure you're hiding the energy with your Darkness and then we can repeat the process a few more times. It'll waste some of mine but if you can do this, it'll be more than worth it. I'm counting on you Xilo."

"I don't really understand what's going on but I'll do my best."

"That's all I can ask for."

With time passing and no one else finding the core anywhere else everyone started to gather where Xilo was. Since they hadn't seen him in a bit they had assumed he had found the core. Sure enough, when they went downstairs they all him sitting near a floating cyan ball. "What's he doing though?" Tilting her head, Felli got closer as her curiosity got the better of her. "Don't we just destroy this thing?" Seeing Xilo with his eyes closed Felli watched him closely