What happens now?

with his eyes closed, smelling a sweet aroma, a fragrance of roses, Lotus immediately opened his eyes to find Ariel analysing him as if he was a different species. "uh can you stop staring at me, ugh!" grabbing his head in anguish he stood himself upright, "Hey how did you get past the test of caliber," Ariel asked inquisitively

"what test?" Lotus responded with an expression of perplexion

"There should've been a very troublesome test in the ocean where you are attacked by an array of beastly sea creatures, some of them even can manipulate your mind"

"Dunno what your talkin' about to be honest I never saw any beasts, but I did see i giant door, which I guess can be described as beastly lol"

Ariel rolled her eyes and gave up on getting answers from him, looking around frantically she noticed something was amiss "wait where's the sword"

Lotus stared deeply into the sky while in deep thought "oh shit!… I forgot"

"noooooooooooooo" Ariel again fell to her knees, this time from a different pain, "You fucking Idiot"

"Hey hey, language, and I saved your life in place of the sword so be thankful" he crossed his arms in a prideful manner. Ariel left staring at the sandy ground gloomily "you don't understand, without that sword, I have no life worth saving"

Lotus then proceeded to get up off the ground and rub the sand off his back, he even took his shoes off, tipping them over and watching the grains float away with the wind

"What are you talking about, why was it so important? "

"I don't know how you got here from earth but I was transported a couple of days ago here, by a goddess, well specifically her underling and I am bound to this underling through a curse and the only way to unbound me was with that sword"

Lotus began pondering many things "damn, sorry but why you? and how was that even possible? and who's the goddess?"

"Listen only reason I know is because when I got here the underling told me the goddess wants to use me, to take my power because I'm 'gifted', and once I've cultivated to a high enough level she will take everything from me"

"Just tell her not to" Lotus immediately laughed, "Of course, you don't take things seriously typically, and you just ruined my only chance at freedom"

"Ok, ok I'm sorry alright, don't worry, I can get it back can just teleport back in there grab it and come back out"

"you can do that?!"

He sighed "yes although it leaves me extremely exhausted"

"you owe me"

"true" Lotus then closed his eyes and when he reopened them they glowed azure gold in the next moment he was gone

"Woah!" Ariel said woefully

"back here again," Lotus said "although it looks completely different now" what was once a majestic dome of beauty was now a hollow hell, it burned so hot he could hardly breath. Blazing Fires melting the asphalt ground, though the flames quite, the carnage it left could not go unseen. he tried waving his hands focusing on the intention of cooling the area, but he was not all powerful so of course he's attempt were void.

"Who was the 'sage' he called out to?" he remembered the words the dragon called out before passing away

Focusing his attention back and looking around frantically he spotted what he looked for, immediately running over to try to pick it up, something very unfortunate happened

what was once a shining crimson blade of destruction, turned into dust before his very eyes as he tried picking it up the dust slipping through his fingers

"ughhh, she's not gonna like this"

Without wasting any more time in the unbearable hell he immediately vanished ending up back in the spot he was in

"you're back!!" she said gleefully

"yes but … sorry what's your name again?"

"Ariel?", 'how could he forget already'

"Ariel ok, I have good news and bad news". She looked at him shaking her head as if signalling him to go on "well the good news is I'm back in one piece, the bad news is… the sword isn't, it turned into dust in my hands"

despair is the expression that took over her, even amidst the torrents of sand her aura remained still.

"Look, if we stick together me and you… I will… we will find a way to free you from your bonds and get us back to earth"

with a reflective expression, she pondered his words "hmmm, alright fine, but I'm not casting shields for you every time you get into a fight" she said relent-fully.

he shrugged while reaching out his hand to help her off her knees "don't need your shields anyway, hopefully we won't need to fight anything or anyone here, so anyways where do we go now?"

"hmph, let us get out of these lands first, I'll guide us out"

Thus they journey forward…