4 Chapter 4: The Clock and the Lighting Rod

'Patience, Torelamri. There is more that I need to let Rydel know.' Ol raised his hand in assurance towards the Rockies named Torelamri, 'Give me five minutes and then I will take him to the court yard. Is Dolon back yet?'

'Yes She will be. I watch the time. Don't be late, you!' Torelamri blinked a few times with real effort and then turned around and walked away. His bushy brows flopped up and down with the motion. Cellica smiled at Rydel and then followed suit.

'Sorry, he is Torelamri, the bearer of the crystal clock.' Ol explained the situation, 'He is very time conscious, and the artifact certainly didn't help it either. But going back to the topic at hand, ever since I have obtained this artifact, I have been trying to find out as much as I can about them. I am sure you have too as these artifacts tend to seek out beings of such character. The questions I have are threefold:

'First, what is the purpose of these artifacts?'Second, how many of these things are there? 'Third, What happens after all the artifacts are found and activated?'

Rydel simply sat there and is lost in thought. These are the questions that never occurred to him, really. He looked down at his right hand as lights reflect off its surface and the beautiful markings that's showing the dormant colour of purple.

'So what were the answers you found?'

'This is where things get interesting. The scroll said these artifacts were used to combat a greater threat facing the galaxy, but it refuses to explain it further. Usually if I had set up my questions strictly and clearly, I can typically get answers that are of the utmost detail, but it seems like...it's hiding something.' Ol said with a calm and collected voice, and Rydel turned and looked at him inquisitively immediately after hearing what he's saying.

'Are you suggesting that the scroll have some sort of consciousness behind it? Or even all the artifacts have them?'

'That is one possibility, Or it is incapable of telling us further' Ol puts on the tone where one agrees an observation briefly only to provide an alternative, 'but it could also be that's it was set up this way. These could very well be remnants from civilizations of a higher or something deliberately put here. But no matter what the true truth is, there is also another truth that can't be ignored.'

'Cellica's?' Rydel has finally started to understand Ol's thinking.

'Indeed. And that is something I have verified. There are definitely something that's beyond this greater galaxy, however it's not something even she can see.' Ol confirmed.

'Is there anything we can observe using actual instruments though?' Rydel asked, 'We mapped out the visible universe in ages past, so can we not do it now?'

'We can definitely map it. But the space in between is so vast that nothing has been able to get out or in. Not even light. Compared to what all three species have covered up to this point, the space outside is orders of magnitude bigger, and stranger, almost as if physics suddenly stopped working the same way there.'Ol remarked.

Rydel agrees. For most scientists, we all want to gain as much useful information as we can, but due to one reason or another, the biggest limitations seemed to be the lack of information. We can devise powerful artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms all we can, but without a vast amount of data to back it up, nothing of value will be able to come out of it.

But in Cellica's case, it's the exact opposite. If what she's saying is accurate, then she is able to see almost everything there is. She can possibly scale it how she wants and focus on as much or as little detail as she wants. The kind of control and focus required is something unthinkable for Rydel.

'No wonder she was an actual astronaut.'

'Yes. And right before you go, about Torelamri, the Crystal Clock bearer. Just take it easy with him. He can manipulate time on a local scale but also that clock is showing some sort of a countdown at the same time. It doesn't run continuously or linearly in the time as we understand it. We do not know what triggers the moving dial either. We have suspected that has something to do with the darkness that Cellica sees.'

'I see. So the end of the countdown is when the ominous threat that we have no idea about arrives? Great.' Rydel leaned back and almost fell off the chair, 'How can we fight something we cannot see, touch or perceive?'

'We can't really fight whatever it is. But we can at least prepare to the best of our ability so we can't lose.' Ol said, 'Taking a page out of the war book of the humans, you guys used to excel at that, didn't you?'

'We did, but it's not something any of us are proud of.' Rydel slowly got up and Ol raised his arm slightly to send him off. At that exact moment, Torelamri's head popped from behind the corridor, 'Dolon is back. The time is up.'

'I am coming.' Rydel replied, 'see, perfect timing, isn't it?'

'Close.' Torelamri's head disappears and Rydel marched ahead to follow him out. Towards the end of the same corridor he live in was door that leads to what seemed like the training hall for all of them. The whole compound was previously a separate mining facility, but after all the useful things are stripped, Ol had scooped in and bought the whole thing. There are a lot of exercise facilities for both humans and the other two species. The Rocky had a higher acceleration due to gravity, which is one reason for their small stature and their strength.

'OK. This is the training hall, you may exercise here.' Torelamri briefly pointed at all the equipments lying around, 'But right now, we need to see your limits. And we do it outside.'

'That is a very good idea.' Rydel agreed with his judgement, 'I am sure quite a lot of our abilities are not entirely suited to be used here.'

'Yeah, when Dolon just got here, she fried the entire compound. It took a lot of time for it to heal. Especially for me. I don't have much time.'

'uh...I am sorry.....?' Rydel tried to remember the lifespan of Rockies as well as what they look like when they age, but according to his memories he vividly remember how their fur turn white not dissimilar to human hair.

'I didn't mean it that way. Also Rockies don't need empathy. We strong!' Torelamri shot back unconsciously and almost seemed apologetic in his explanation, 'We Rockies talk short. I don't have time. The countdown is up. It's fast.'

They have reached the end of the training hall and there is an actual door labelled 'exit'. Torelamri kicked the door open without stopping a beat and Rydel quickly squeezed through before it swings back and shut off again. What's in front is a decently sized flat area with almost nothing insight.

There are a few targets being set up less than a hundred meters away and a platform holds a couple military grade guns on top. This seems like where the group do military style training. By the time Rydel and Torelamri got near the platform, Cellica and a tall Aquarian female is already waiting there.

Cellica is still wearing her standard flight jacket and multipurpose trousers outfit while the Aquarian is in a much thinner version of the exoskeleton that looks more like the fish scales, yet it clearly shows the slim and athletic body of hers. She slowly shifts her balance from left to right playfully and stops when Rydel gets close.

'This is Dolon. She is great at fighting. Also great with other stuff.' Torelamri raised his arm and gestured towards the Aquarian female.

'Were you the one that fried everything?' Rydel asked, 'You must have a powerful artifact then...'

'All of our artifacts are powerful in their own way. Let's see what you can do.' Dolon replied calmly and moved sideways to clear out the space for Rydel to move around.

'Ok, and there is no problem with me throwing things right?' Rydel rolled up his sleeves and asked, 'Not gonna draw any unwanted attention?'

'All of these area is being covered by a shield and a camouflage....Go crazy, Rydel.' Cellica said as she stepped back with the other two and leaned against the weapons platform.

'Ok. Let's start with something simple.' Rydel concentrated and loosened his left by opening and closing it a few times, then he looked at a lose rock near by, reached out as the glove glows yellow and closes his fist.Nothing.

'Hold on.' Rydel chuckled awkwardly and focuses yet again.

Just now he was slightly off with that aiming so he didn't actually make contact. He took a deep breath and reached out; the sharp edges of the lose rock fed back to his hand as he held on. He pulled his hands back and release as the rock warped out of existence from its original point and reappears next to him.

'That's quite cool and all. But can you do something a bit more...ambitious?' Dolon asked, her voice seemed a little shaken, possibly by how lame the display of power is. Rydel tried not to think about it too hard, but this time he just reached for the target that's set up far away.

Surprisingly, the aiming is actually perfect and he grabbed onto a cylindrical object that's basically what the target looks like from this distance. He plugged it out as the target suddenly flies up ten meters into the sky and then disappeared in a 'puff'.

'Damn.' Cellica remarked.

'Just watch this.' Rydel smiled proudly as he turns, sets his feet, rotates his body and launches what's in his hand towards the second target. The first target reappears after the twisting of space and flew towards the second target, but landing awkwardly short and bounces a couple times after landing.

'Not exacly what I was trying to showcase, but you get the idea.' Rydel shrugged his shoulder, 'I am not too familiar with this at all, but that's what I can do so far.'

'Ooooooh...' Dolon showed visible excitement when she turns and hit Cellica on the shoulder as the initial calm demeanor is nowehere to be found now 'This is a good one. And looks like he can be made into a fighter! What do you think, To?'

'Torelamri thinks he has potential. Yes. Spacial manipulation is a valuable asset also.' Torelamri stared at Dolon as she walks away and turns around, 'I have seen enough. I need to work.'

'Yep. I will leave him to your hands then?' Cellica stepped backwards as she says a few last things to the two of them, 'Just take it easy!'

Dolon circled around Rydel and scans his body, 'A moderately athletic human male. Rydel, do you want to fight me?'

'Ah, not really.' Rydel tightens his lips and promptly denies the request.

'I like you!' Dolon laughed it off as if it's nothing, 'You seemed like someone who's just cruising along right now. But when given a chance or under pressure, you would totally shine, right?! All of us here is different. Ol isn't sure about anything. Cellica just wants to figure out what's going on out there. Torelamri thinks some sort of emergency or disaster is what will happen. But I, a proud warrior of the Aquarian depths, I think we have some enemies to fight!'

'And what made you think that?' Rydel asked.

'Put this on.' Dolon reaches for something on top of the table and threw it towards Rydel. He caught with one hand and looked at it. It's a shield generator, 'let's go a few rounds? I will only use my artifact.'

'Not exactly something I picture I would do today...' Rydel certainly wasn't the biggest fan of inter-species violence, but he know the shields well enough to trust it to protect him from most physical and energy attacks. Also, only using the artifact??

Once Rydel has made sure the shields are on and fully covering his whole body, he finally gave the ready signal to Dolon. She shivers slightly in joy and started to one of the tightenings of her exoskeleton. One of the many arms an Aquarian has reached out from her waist side and held position, but something is different.

Last time he checked, Aquarians don't tend to have fingernails. Especially not metal ones painted in dark blue with static electricity whizzing in between the bars.

'DEFEND YOURSELF!' Dolon screamed as she swings her arm violently and a massive jolt of electricity manifested between those rods and hit Rydel instantly.

The force shield collided with the electricity as it splashes and circulates around Rydel just inches above his skin, but despite avoiding the fate of being fried, he found himself high in the air and then fell hard on the ground and rolled a few times. The force field also includes a dampener function when it comes to impact so Rydel was mostly fine except for some dizziness and loss of direction initially.

'What the hell just happened?' Rydel scrambled around and tried to find Dolon. Was that her artifact? Generating lightning? Why didn't I get that overpowered item?

'My artifact lighting rod amplifies the higher base electrical potential within Aquarian nervous systems, and that allows me to generate and discharge any amount of electricity with pinpoint accuracy.' Dolon's voice came from right behind him, 'You are allowed to attack me how you want! Go for it! Use your artifact! Pleeeeease?'

'Fine. You said it yourself.' Rydel turned around suddenly facing Dolon once again, this time with something already in his grasp, 'Take this!'

He moved to throw the target that he broke off earlier towards Dolon, but before the motion was even completed, a much smaller stream of lightning came out of the rod, snuck past the shields and gently stroked his left hand ,the sudden impact making him lose his grasp as the target popped out of existence some ten meters away. Ah, the shield generators misbehaving as usual...how convenient!

With the pain eminating form his hands, Rydel's mind is instantly thrown back to the battle simulations back in the explorer's training program. The first thing of battle is to take cover. Before trying to win, don't lose!

'Maybe this will work....' Rydel quickly regained his composure and stepped back quite some distance as he plans his next move. All the times before, he had only tried to grab things that are already disconnected and lose. He did just broke off the target off it's base, but that wasn't constructed very well to begin with. Maybe, he just need to change how he thinks. It was easy to take things that were separate and throw them around, but can he take part of a larger object?

Can he just grab onto a bunch of material and throw it in front?

Whether or not he can do it, this will definitely create a great cover and possibly a counterattack. He hovers his hand around the waist level and imagines picking up sand. Don't pinch too hard, don't go too light. The gloves light up and seemingly hums as Rydel slowly curls his fingers digit by digit.

Something is there. Something is definitely there.

As he starts to retrieve his hand, whatever he had this time feels extremely heavy. Rydel braces as he puts his right hand under to support his left and pushes both forward, depositing what he has right in front of him and towards Dolon.

The space in between the two bends as light are distorted about a dark black spot, then streams of materials spiral out of it like a vortex in reverse. The streams of materials possesses the colours of the rocks of Athena 3, but looks strangely fluid at this moment. Within half a second, the streams of materials had built up to about two humans high and completely blocked off any lines of sights between Rydel and Dolon.

Seeing this, Rydel lost his words. So this is the power of the artifact, used properly. He walked towards the now solid bed of rocks and touched it. It is boiling hot, but still remains solid. It seems like the teleportation process also affects the actual contents, especially when the size of it is as substantial as this one.

'Not bad.' Rydel says so as he started to backpedal and fell back onto his butt, 'Not bad at all...'

When the space in front of Dolon started to become distorted, she couldn't help with the excitement of seeing a physically impressive artifact in action. But when the streams of rocks started pouring out and piling on top of the ground, she immediately sends a small jolt of lighting to her exoskeleton and using the violent muscular action to hop out of the way, right in time before a huge chunk of rock appears out of nowhere and crush where she was standing moments before. She lands gracefully and in complete control and marveled at this power.

'Rydel! You really went for it this time, huh?' Dolon stayed on guard and skipped around the rock, only to see Rydel lying there completely passed out.

'It got quite loud in here,' Cellica's voice came through as she popped her head out from the exit of the training hall. She is wearing sports gear and seems to be doing some training of her own, 'everything okay?'

'Yes. Just the usual.' Dolon picked up Rydel and put it on her shoulder with one arm, 'but he just took the first step to becoming a bearer.'