92 Setting up the formation

A smoldering pillar of smoke rose from the innermost pedestal and formed a vague human or I guess elven silhouette.

"That's one of the demigod level ancestors. He accepts your offer on behalf of all dark elves."

Four pedestals in front of me lost their ethereal glow and revealed the objects within. Night Owl quickly collected them and I placed the enlightenment fruit and a piece of bark with the formation details engraved on it on two now free pedestals.

No sooner had I removed my hand that the spheres around the two objects flickered back into existence. The other two pedestals remained empty, devoid of the glow the others exhibited.

As we were walking out of the treasury I used the time to give the objects in Night Owl's grasp a good look over.

Tucked beneath his arm were two wands. Made from ebony wood with some magic gems fitted into deeply carved sockets and ancient-looking runes engraved upon them. I could feel the darkness rippling off of them at a slow and steady pace.

With the same arm that he had tucked the wands under he held a book. Calling it a tome would be more accurate because it is massive, thick, and full of magic. Darkness attributed magic I might add.

As I looked at the fourth object in Night Owl's other hand, I got the sneaking suspicion that all or most the treasures in the dark elven treasury were attributed to the element of darkness. This kind of made sense, I mean they are called dark elves and spend the majority of their time in darkness... But some variety would do them good.

Not that I was complaining. Four treasures that were perfectly in sync with the darkness would make the creation of this formation much easier.

The fourth was a bow. Simple, made from redwood and nourished by someone with an innate understanding of darkness. Not as fancy as the other three but its simplicity held a certain beauty.

We successfully left the treasury. I had felt a few unfriendly gazes as we left but Night Owl's angry growl had made them vanish like air. Tenten was waiting outside and flew us straight back into the nest.

Upon arrival, I asked Night Owl to clear the nest until the formation was set up completely. A few bird noises later the tree hole was completely empty and I could begin my work.

I began to apply my magic to the ground, setting down the baselines of the formation. Like a painting, the array of circles and connecting lines slowly came together, forming a large outline of the formation.

I collected the four magic treasures from Night Owl and placed them in the crucial and somewhat unstable parts of the formation.

Now the only thing missing was the core. Without it, the formation wouldn't have a source of power and be completely useless.

I had the dark origin but that wasn't really going to cut it. For a formation to show its true potential there had to be a sentient component. For the treasury this was easy, it was filled with the souls of those ancestors but here there was no such thing.

Now how to get a soul...

Safe to say, I had a solution prepared. For a long time, I had been hesitant about a second offspring due to the danger it would face. Now I had found the perfect place to put it.

'System, I want to plant my second sapling right here and combine it with the dark origin.'

\u003cFine... But do it yourself.\u003e

Before I could complain, a veritable flood of information was jammed into my unsuspecting mind. There was so much! How to extract my chlorophyllic line, how to compress enough nutrition and magic for the sapling to grow and on and on the flood of knowledge just kept coming.

Finally, the flood ebbed and I could focus on digesting what I had received. Sorting through the mess in my mind, a clear picture of how to create a sapling took shape before my inner eye.

This was a very complex blueprint that vastly surpassed anything I could create at this point. Truly a marvelous sight to behold.